Transforming ICBC to deliver lower rates, better benefits
Government is transforming ICBC by removing lawyers and legal costs from the system to reduce rates and substantially increase care benefits, making public auto insurance work for British Columbians again.
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Common $1M liability coverage not enough this day and age
Thomson Rogers partners Darcy Merkur and Ian Furlong were quoted in a recent Law Times article “Common $1M liability coverage not enough this day and age: lawyer” by Mallory Hendry discussing insurance companies needing to do a better job informing clients about liability coverage.
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How does ‘Joint and Several Liability’ protect Accident Victims?
In personal injury actions where there is more than one person found at fault, each of the defendants are equally responsible to pay the full amount of damages to the person who was injured. This is referred to as ‘joint and several liability’.
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An Accountable Legal Profession
There has been a lot of recent discussion about the complaints process at the Law Society of Ontario (and other law societies). How should law societies regulate and discipline lawyers, and how do they treat complaints from the public or self-reps, compared to complaints brought by other lawyers or the regulator itself? Are lawyers the best placed to discipline other lawyers? In today’s podcast, LSO President Malcolm Mercer debates these and other issues with Anne Rempel, who has written a series of posts on the complaints process for our Access Revolution Blog.
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Law Commission of Ontario reacts to changes to Class Proceedings Act proposed in bill 161
In a letter signed by Andrew Pinto, chairman of the LCO’s board of governors, and addressed to Doug Downey, attorney general of Ontario, the LCO declined to show its support of the proposed amendments to the Class Proceedings Act, 1992, as currently drafted under Schedule 4 of bill 161, the Smarter and Stronger Justice Act, 2019, which had its first reading on Dec. 9, 2019.
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Pouring Salt on the Wound: Psychologists Identify the Effects of ‘Institutional Betrayal’
Women exposed to sexual assault in the military suffer more trauma-related symptoms than female veterans sexually assaulted in civilian life. Children abused only in residential care settings are more likely to have difficulties as adults than children who were abused only at home.
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Surveillance and Disability Claim Update
The Personal Information Protection And Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) has only been with us for a short period of time and it is still too early to tell what sort of an impact it and other similar legislation will have on the dissemination of information both at the claims, adjudication and litigation levels in the handling of disability claims. The objective of this paper and presentation is to discuss this developing area of the law, and in particular recent developments that will assist in predicting how such legislation will impact on the use of surveillance in disability claims.
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‘PSW shortage is a crisis’ putting lives at risk: Ontario Health Coalition
LONDON, ONT. — The Ontario Health Coalition says a recent report by its team is showing a large shortage of personal support workers (PSW) in long term-care homes.
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Neurology Patients Have Higher Suicide Rates
Over a 37-year period, the suicide rate for people with a neurologic disorder was 44.0 per 100,000 person-years, compared with 20.1 per 100,000 person years for all other people, reported Annette Erlangsen, PhD, of the Danish Research Institute for Suicide Prevention/Mental Health Centre Copenhagen, and colleagues in JAMA.
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Companies blame distracted drivers, complex cars as auto insurance increases pile up
It’s the latest and largest in a parade of steep insurance increases the province has been hit with over the past two years that are being blamed on wrecks caused by distracted drivers and on technology-laden vehicles that have become expensive to fix after even minor accidents.