Press release: Horwath says NDP will lower auto insurance rates by at least 15%
NORTH YORK – At a town hall on auto insurance Thursday evening, Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath announced that an NDP government will lower auto insurance rates by at least 15 per cent and ban the practice of neighborhood discrimination in the setting of auto insurance premiums.
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How Michael Cohen, Trump’s Fixer, Built a Shadowy Business Empire
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mr. Cohen’s personal injury practice filed hundreds of lawsuits largely stemming from auto accidents. For part of that time, a bustling bullpen of clerks and paralegals worked the phones at his Long Island City office. They sought settlements with insurers and churned out suits on behalf of clients, many of whom were referred to clinics that were later caught up in no-fault insurance fraud investigations.
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Series on bad doctors is alarming
The Star investigation regarding performance records for doctors is a sterling piece of research and writing.
The reports raise questions. Why is it necessary for Ontario patients to turn to the Star for information about medical performance? Why must Ontario patients rely on foreign jurisdictions for information about safe access to Ontario licenced doctors? And why, in a country with federal health care, do patients from one province have more secure access to medical performance than others?
https://www.thestar.com/ opinion/letters_to_the_ editors/2018/05/05/bad-doc- series-is-alarming.html
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Personal Injury Victims Need More Compensation
Steven Wilder is also a member of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association and says compensation in Canada is unfair because it’s capped at just under $400,000 if a lawsuit is successful.
He says private insurance companies are not paying their fair share but make millions in profit.
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#TorontoStrong Fund to donate initial $500,000 to victims and families of Yonge St. van attack. How will the rest be spent?
The #TorontoStrong Fund is giving the first $500,000 it raised since the Yonge St. van rampage to victims of the attack and their families.
As for the remaining $2 million collected, how it gets distributed is still to be determined.
https://www.thestar.com/news/ gta/2018/05/04/torontostrong- fund-to-donate-initial-500000- to-victims-and-families-of- yonge-st-van-attack-how-will- the-rest-be-spent.html______________________________ ______________________________
Report: Medical malpractice cases take too long, cost taxpayer too much
A recent report commissioned by the Ontario government found that medical malpractice cases in the province take too long to resolve and cost taxpayers too much money.
Authored by retired Justice Stephen Goudge, the report said it takes about seven years for cases to make their ways through the courts and nearly five years to reach settlements.
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Self-regulation is shielding bad doctors, not protecting patients
Doctors who have been disciplined by American medical boards can saunter back across the border to set up shop and, thanks to Canada’s secretive regulatory bodies, their Canadian patients may be none the wiser.
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Clarity needed on what drug manufacturers are paying doctors millions of dollars for
The opioid crisis in Canada is getting worse, despite efforts to curtail it. The latest figures suggest that more than 4,000 Canadians died last year from opioid overdoses.
The main culprit for all this death currently is illicit fentanyl, which is 100 times more toxic than morphine. But the root cause of much of this crisis is OxyContin, which was prescribed widely by doctors before it was fully understood just how addictive and subject to abuse it could be.
https://www.thestar.com/ opinion/editorials/2018/05/05/ clarity-needed-on-what-drug- manufacturers-are-paying- doctors-millions-of-dollars- for.html______________________________ ______________________________
Provincial Election 2018
A public list by Ontario Medical Assoc.
A.B. v. Waite, 2018 ONSC 2151 (CanLII), <http://canlii.ca/t/hrcxf
Conclusion
[22] This is a disastrous outcome for the plaintiff. It would only have been worse had I granted the threshold motion. It illustrates the legislative intention that all but the most significant tort claims should be eliminated and injured motorists be largely confined to claiming no fault benefits under their own insurance policies.
[23] It also illustrates how annual indexing of the monetary threshold for unreduced general damages and annual indexing of the deductible may in short order make unreduced general damages largely unattainable. A review of jury awards in this jurisdiction over the past decade would reveal that general damages in excess of $130,000.00 are very much the exception. There is no evidence that jury verdicts have become more generous to keep pace with inflation.
[24] In conclusion I am compelled by the Insurance Act and the Regulations to reduce the jury verdict of $118,371.00 to $5,760.00. Judgment may issue for the latter amount and I may be spoken to with respect to costs.