Levinter & Levinter is a boutique law firm that specializes in civil litigation. The firm practices exclusively in the personal injury field, medical malpractice, accident benefits, product liability, and various disability claims throughout the province of Ontario.
Well known amongst personal injury firms, Levinter & Levinter prides itself in helping injured victims and their families with the personal injury as well as accident benefits claims. Quality work is our number one priority. We take special pride in obtaining the best results for our clients. We employ numerous secretarial and support staff in order to provide our clients with the highest standard of personal service.
Founded in 1921 by Isadore Levinter and later joined by his son, Benjamin Levinter, the firm has deservingly gained the notoriety of being a crusader for injured victim’s rights.
Below is an article, which appeared in the book titled Learned Friends, A Tribute to 50 Remarkable Ontario Advocates (between 1950-2000). One of the advocates talked about in the book was Isadore. The book was published by the Advocate’s Society to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Society: |
It was a toss-up for Isadore Levinter whether he would go into medicine or law. So he studied both at the same time. He was still a teenager, the son of an Austrian immigrant who owned a furniture store at Spadina and Queen.
For a year, 1917-18, young Isadore took classes in both disciplines, a feat that was possible in those days. But the dual studies came to an end in second-year meds, when Levinter faced his first cadaver. He almost fainted at the gruesome sight. From then on, he stuck exclusively to law. He received his call to the bar in 1921 and embarked on a long and fruitful career as the great strategist among civil litigators.
It was Levinter who conceived what he called "the hopscotch method" of examining witnesses at discovery. He focused his questions on one area, then hopped to a second area, a third, and then reversed himself back to the first. The aim was never to let the witness get comfortable with a set story. In cross-examination, another piece of Levinter strategy was to hold back on the final question in a sequence. The premise for this rule was based on the counsel's uncertainty about what a witness might unexpectedly blurt out. "Always quit before you hammer in the last nail," Levinter warned, "because the last nail may blow you apart."
Levinter's manner in court was disarming. A dapper dresser – out of court he wore a three-piece suit, wing collar, a gold tie, and a fresh rose in his buttonhole – he impressed jurors and witnesses with his elegant gown, looking as though he had just bought it, his tabs and collar gleaming white. He was polite and gentlemanly, a man whom witnesses under cross-examination were inclined to trust implicitly – until Levinter surprised them when he moved for the jugular.
For the first decades of his practice, he concentrated on plaintiffs' work in personal injury cases. He was so successful, the bane of insurance companies and the Toronto Transit Commission, that insurers finally decided to get Levinter on their side. Thereafter, his firm had the unusual distinction of carrying on a mixed practice of both plaintiffs' and defendants' work. Levinter could switch gears with the best of counsel, and, in one remarkable instance, he even took on a high-profile criminal trial. His client was a man named Alex MacDonald, the less-well-known brother of the notorious criminal of the 1930s, Mickey MacDonald. Alex faced a charge of murder and, at his trial, the versatile Levinter won a verdict of not guilty. He was delighted at his success, but decided not to pursue more business in the criminal courts.
Levinter distinguished himself equally in his activities beyond the courtroom. He chaired the civil liberties committee of the Canadian Bar Association, and he served as president of Beth Tzedec Congregation. When he was elected a bencher in 1956, he became the first Jewish lawyer to hold the position, winning re-election until he became a life bencher.
For a boy who grew up as a city slicker, Levinter had a great fondness for nature and the outdoors. He was a dedicated fisherman, and he rode his horse every Sunday morning. But his most astonishing embrace of rural life came in 1941, when he bought a 100-acre working farm just outside Toronto's city limits. The farm included thirty head of milking cows, hogs, sheep, chickens, and a vegetable garden. Since Levinter knew nothing about milking cows or shearing sheep, he sent his son Benjamin to the Ontario Agricultural College. With his college-taught expertise, Benjamin tended to the farm problems ñ even as he later pursued his own outstanding career in the law. But the question remained: Why did Isadore Levinter buy the farm in the first place? The reason, he explained more than once, was that he wanted to have something to fall back on in case he couldn't make a living as a lawyer. On top of all his other fine qualities, Levinter was a man of such modesty that his own great success in the law amazed him. |
