“Whether it’s families watching their hydro bills climb while executive pay at OPG skyrockets, or the Liberals helping auto insurance companies cut benefits in half while drivers don’t see any premium reductions, it’s clear that the Liberals aren’t interested in helping out people.”
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Ontario Auditor General issues warning over unfunded liability for auto insurance claims fund
The 2013 report also noted that in 2011, the Auditor General had recommended that FSCO “monitor ongoing compliance with the interim Minor Injury Guideline, expedite the work to develop evidence-based treatment protocols for minor injuries, and identify and address any lack of clarity in its definitions of injuries.”
THE NOT-SO-INDEPENDENT MEDICAL EXAMINATION
These examinations are commonly referred to as an independent medical examinations, or IMEs. Unfortunately, the more accurate definition for IME is insurermedical examination. Too often doctors and medical professionals performing these examinations are skewed and even biased against the injured victim in favour of the defendant and/or insurance company. The result is that an already vulnerable person is victimized again in her pursuit of justice. http://otlablog.com/the-not-so-independent-medical-examination/
Strategizing costs
The legal costs of a personal injury trial can often exceed the damages awarded by judgment. In motor vehicle accident cases, it is common for insurers to raise the “threat of costs” to deter victims from pursuing litigation in cases where the statutory threshold of “permanent and serious,” and the deductible on general damage awards, are in play.
http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/index.php?section=article&articleid=2042
Lawyers Return Fire at IBC
The Ontario Trial Lawyers Association isn’t buying the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s claim to be “the real consumer advocate.” … In a post on the association’s website OTLA’s John Karapita called that an “amazing and audacious” claim.
Lawyers Return Fire at IBC – Thompson’s World Insurance News Dec 6 2013
WILL THE REAL CONSUMER ADVOCATES PLEASE STAND UP?
Let’s be clear: the Insurance Bureau of Canada represents insurers and their shareholders. Those interests lie in maximizing the return on equity. Most reasonable people might conclude that the core mandate of the insurance industry is not just incompatible with the consumer interest but diametrically opposed to the interests of consumers. Real consumer advocates, like the people at FAIR, are those who have been through the system and have some valuable advice and lessons for others who at this point do not even know that they will be in an accident one day. They are the ones who have nothing to gain at this point and even shoulder some risk in speaking up to a powerful industry lobby. That’s the definition of a real consumer advocate.
MADD Canada criticizes Ontario auto insurance law on 15% rate reduction
The Progressive Conservatives have said that if their party is elected to power it would adopt a “file and use” system that would eliminate government reviews of rates and would require auto insurer CEOs to personally sign off on any rate filing or discount offering. The PCs also say they would, if elected, establish a special unit in the Crown Attorney’s office to investigate auto insurance fraud.
New arbitration hearing ordered in Ontario minor injury guideline dispute
Scarlett v. Belair Insurance Company – A delegate in the Office of the Director of Arbitrations with Ontario’s auto insurance regulator has rescinded a decision made earlier this year related to the minor injury guideline in the accident benefits legislation, also ordering a new arbitration hearing. http://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/news/new-arbitration-hearing-ordered-in-ontario-minor-injury-guideline-dispute/1002764034/508s0pqv8wrps0w24W6x08yM2vx/?ref=enews_CU&utm_source=CU&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CU-EN12032013
Canadian insurance regulators launch new database of disciplinary actions
A new database will allow the public and insurance industry participants to access the names of people and firms disciplined by the various regulators in Canada.
Docs dispute transparency
Insurer argues that only ‘proven and credible findings’ relevant to ‘patient safety’ be disclosed –
That, as the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association has stated, is a distortion of the principles upon which physicians have been given the power of self-regulation. Concerns for the protection of privacy of physicians in this context are misguided and conflict with the mandate of acting “first and foremost in the interest of the public.”
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/11/29/docs-dispute-transparency