Matt Lalande

Experienced Hamilton Personal Injury Lawyer

Lalande Personal Injury & Disability Lawyers

A serious injury changes everything at once: your health, your income, and your family’s plans for the future. Matt Lalande has spent his career acting for people in exactly that position.

A University of Ottawa law graduate, Matt is the principal of Lalande Personal Injury & Disability Lawyers, a firm based at 1 King Street West in downtown Hamilton, with a second office in Burlington. As a Hamilton personal injury lawyer with more than 20 years of experience, he concentrates on a small group of high-stakes matters: catastrophic injury, wrongful death, injuries to children, and denied long-term disability benefits. He also advises on employment law issues such as severance and termination.

One fact stands out. In over two decades of practice, Matt has never acted for an insurance company. His clients have always been injured people and their families – in Hamilton, across the Golden Horseshoe, and throughout Ontario. Consultations are free and obligation-free.

Why Clients Choose Hamilton Personal Injury Lawyer Matt Lalande

• Principal of Lalande Personal Injury & Disability Lawyers
• More than 20 years representing injured people – never insurers
• Comes from a family of trial lawyers and judges practising since 1973
• Accepts a limited number of serious files and remains the principal lawyer on every case
• Co-author of Disability Insurance Law in Canada, a text used by lawyers and judges in long-term disability litigation
• Named to The Best Lawyers in Canada™ for Personal Injury Litigation every year since 2018
• Former director of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association
• Free consultations and contingency fees – no money up front, and fees are payable only if compensation is recovered
• Offices in downtown Hamilton and Burlington, serving clients across Ontario

Practice Areas

Serious Personal Injury

As an experienced personal injury lawyer, Matt represents people living with the most severe injuries, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputation, severe burns, complex and crush fractures, degloving, and disfigurement. These claims often involve extensive medical evidence and can run for years, which is one reason he keeps his caseload deliberately small.

Wrongful Death

When a family loses someone because of another party’s actions, Ontario’s Family Law Act allows certain family members to bring a claim. Matt acts for families in wrongful death claims, providing legal counsel during one of the most difficult periods they will ever face.

Injuries to Children

Cases involving injured children – including child brain injury, pedestrian, and cycling claims – follow their own rules. Limitation periods do not start running while the claimant is a minor, and the court must approve any settlement on behalf of a child. There is a further challenge: the true cost of a childhood injury to education, independence, and future earning capacity may not be measurable for years. Matt’s practice accounts for these realities.

Denied Long-Term and Short-Term Disability

A denied disability claim is, at its core, a contract dispute – the outcome turns on the wording of the policy. Matt represents claimants whose benefits have been denied by insurers including Canada Life, Manulife, and Sun Life.

Many denials arrive around the two-year mark, when most policies switch from an “own occupation” test to an “any occupation” test – a change that cuts off benefits for people who still cannot return to their own work. Insurers also deny claims based on alleged pre-existing conditions, a claimed lack of objective medical findings, or surveillance. Matt’s starting point on every disability file is to compare the denial letter with the policy language.

Employment Law

Alongside his injury and disability work, Matt assists with employment matters, including severance reviews, terminations for cause, and executive and professional terminations.

Professional Background

Matt Lalande earned his law degree from the University of Ottawa in 2003 and comes from a family of trial lawyers and judges whose practice dates back to 1973. He built his firm in downtown Hamilton and has devoted his entire career to representing injured people.

Bar year discrepancy: the Top Lawyers profile says called to the bar in 2004; the firm’s own sites and Best Lawyers profile say 2003. Confirm with client before publishing – the year is omitted from this paragraph until confirmed.

His work is recognized well beyond his own files. He co-authored Disability Insurance Law in Canada, which lawyers and judges across the country use in long-term disability litigation. He is a former director of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association. He has written or spoken for more than 100 publications and organizations, including the Ontario Orthopaedic Association, OTLA, local bar organizations, The Lawyer’s Daily, First Reference, and the Globe and Mail’s Leadership Lab. Since 2018, he has been named to The Best Lawyers in Canada™ for Personal Injury Litigation each year.

How Matt Works With Clients

Matt takes on a limited number of serious cases each year – and stays the principal lawyer on every one of them. Team members may assist, but files are not handed off. In his view, catastrophic injury and disability litigation turns on details that only surface when the same lawyer carries a case from start to finish.

Access is kept simple. Consultations are free and available in person, by phone, or virtually to anyone in Hamilton, the Golden Horseshoe, or elsewhere in Ontario. The firm works on a contingency fee basis: clients pay nothing up front, and legal fees are owed only if compensation is recovered. Case reviews are available 24/7.