With an average price of over $1,500 to secure a vehicle in Ontario, insurance is a prohibitive cost in the province and up to 40 per cent higher than other regions in the country. The government has attempted various programs to lower premiums and drew criticism last year when it failed to cut auto insurance rates by 15 per cent, as was promised in 2013.
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Insurers spend fortunes to pay out little
Michael Erdle says in his April 7th article, “The Problem with Experts” in SLAW, an online legal magazine, is that “litigation and arbitration are teeming with experts and they never agree”. That’s for sure. Because of the adversarial component, experts say what they are paid to say. Money, greed and A-type personalities don’t bode well for legitimate claimants.
‘So You Think You’re Covered! The Insurance Industry Rip-Off’
“I have written this book to speak for the thousands who have been silenced and continue to be silenced. It provides claimants with the informational tools to defend themselves against wrongful denials by guiding them through the insurer process. This includes insurer examinations, mediations, examinations for discovery and surveillance. The book also provides advice on how to cope and not give up.” Jokelee Vanderkop
Could “Hot Tubbing” Bring Fairness to Personal Injury Claims in both Tort and Accident Benefits?
It certainly sounds odd, but “hot tubbing” — as the term is used in the context of expert evidence — just might be a way to fix Ontario’s broken accident benefits system.
ONCA Clarifies Discoverability in Limitation Periods
In Fennell v. Deol, the plaintiff was involved in a four vehicle accident on August 24, 2010. On August 16, 2012, he commenced a personal injury claim against one of the other drivers named Shergill. On March 20, 2014, the statement of claim was amended to add as a defendant another driver involved in the accident named Deol. On October 20, 2014, Shergill served a statement of defence and crossclaim, asserting a claim for contribution and indemnity against Deol.
http://www.insblogs.com/auto/
Containing the Spread of Fire(wall)
Implementation of internal firewalls between accident benefits and bodily injury departments has been a struggle for automobile insurers since the publication of the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s Bulletin 184, called “Internal Transfer of Information from Accident Benefits Adjuster to Tort Adjuster”[1]. The type of information that a firewall protects and the direction in which it blocks the flow of information is not always clear. Caution and privacy concerns have at times hindered vital communications between different departments of an insurance company, particularly when dealing with positive results of fraud investigations.
Diagnosis Denied: “Systemic Disregard” for Medical Assessments of Injured Workers
In November 2015, the Ontario Federation of Labour (“OFL”) and the Ontario Network of Injured Workers’ Groups released Prescription Over-Ruled, a report criticising how the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (“WSIB”) evaluates medical evidence when it processes claims. The OFL is Canada’s largest provincial labour federation and represents roughly one million workers. Their report alleges that the WSIB ignores medical evidence and opinions when it is inconsistent with the Board’s desired outcome – typically to deny the claim.
http://otlablog.com/diagnosis-
The Perilous Aftermath of a Simple Concussion
“In the aftermath of a crash there is tremendous agony. But the broken ribs and leg will heal,” Dr. Redelmeier told me. “I’m not as sanguine about a concussion. Even when the CT scan doesn’t show major trauma, a minor injury can damage thousands and thousands of neurons. There are all sorts of problems that can last a long time, and we don’t know how to treat them.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/
Basandra v. Sforza, 2016 ONCA 251 (CanLII)
[1] This action arose out of a motor vehicle accident. The jury questions, as negotiated between trial counsel and accepted by the trial judge, did not oblige the jury to structure its award of damages in a manner that reflected the requirements of s. 267.8 of the Insurance Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. I.8. That section requires the trial judge to reduce jury damages awards for pecuniary losses by the amount of collateral benefits paid to the injured plaintiff. The defendant had the onus of proof regarding both the entitlement to these reductions and their amounts. The appellant submits the trial judge erred by reducing the jury’s awards for past and future attendant care, medical/rehabilitation, and housekeeping costs from $105,000 to nil, in the absence of clear evidence on the appropriate quantum of any reduction[1].
Could Ontario auto insurance really drop 15% starting next year?
The price of auto insurance in Ontario is the notoriously thorny issue that drove hundreds of tow truck drivers to converge on Queen’s Park yesterday in a protest aimed at efforts to regulate their industry.