This is not a criminal case where there may be some risk to the expert witness. Recent exposure in the media regarding Ontario’s ‘expert’ evidence in auto insurance cases point to the pervasive harm and poor outcomes for claimant cases at every level of court hearings and the excessive incomes of some IME vendors. There’s been evidence of bias, medical file manipulations, forged signatures and excessive incomes relating to IMEs that have found to be so lacking in substance and honesty that Ontario’s Superior Court Justices have made negative comments in their decisions. The exposure in the Toronto Star and National Post should be viewed as an opportunity to correct the problem with expert evidence and not a reason to protect those witnesses at hearings. Whether real or not, the perception is the FSCO Arbitration Unit is protecting this insurer medical expert from accountability.
Letter to Director of Arbitrations FSCO re Dr. T. Feb 23 2017