Why Ontario auto liability coverage should get cheaper
Ontario auto insurers may have a hard time raising rates as much as they were before May 15; a major factor could be a controversial change to the dispute resolution process that took effect four years ago.
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Ontario’s FSRA releases guidance on auto insurance claimants during the pandemic
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) has released guidance on how auto insurance claimants for statutory accident benefits (SABs) can expect to be treated by insurers and health service providers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Tomec v Economical Mutual Insurance Company, 2019 ONCA 882 (CanLII), leave to appeal to the SCC ref’d 2020 CanLII 37601 (SCC)
In Tomec v Economical Mutual Insurance Company, 2019 ONCA 882, the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed an insured’s appeal from an application for judicial review of a decision of the Licence and Appeal Tribunal to deny enhanced housekeeping and attendant care benefits. The unanimous panel concluded that the rule of discoverability applied to s. 281.1(1) of the Insurance Act and to s. 51(1) of the old Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule such that the two-year limitation period to dispute benefits could not run before an insured was determined to be catastrophically impaired (CAT).
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Guide to Automobile Accident Benefits Forms
Statutory Accident Benefits (“accident benefits”) are available to those who are injured as a result of the “use or operation of a motor vehicle”. This includes passengers, drivers, cyclists, or those who are injured by motor vehicles as pedestrians. Accident benefits are available regardless of fault and are therefore often referred to as “no-fault” benefits.
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Conducting Virtual Examinations for Discovery
Given the continued suspension of operations of Ontario courts and tribunals,[1] the Advocates’ Society recently issued a guide to Best Practices for Remote Hearings. As the Ontario Superior Court has recently ordered examinations to be conducted virtually, here are ten important tips for conducting virtual examinations for discovery adapted from the guide.
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Ontario Attorney General seeks input on removing juries from civil trials
In a letter obtained by Law Times, Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey has sought the input of key stakeholders in the legal community about the possibility of removing juries from civil trials to help address additional court backlog resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Will COVID push more lawyers into retirement?
James Wilber, a legal consultant at Altman Weil, left readers with a foreboding message earlier this year: “Goodbye Boomers, it’s been great to know you.” As a result of the pandemic, wrote 70-year-old Wilber, there could be “a push toward transition and retirement for the oldest lawyers among us.”
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Customers not lauding insurers’ relief measures, but they aren’t shopping around either
The majority of Canadian motorists surveyed are not satisfied with the financial relief measures offered by their insurers, a recently-released Leger Marketing poll indicates.
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MINISTRY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
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Workplace safety tribunal shares best practices for teleconference hearings
The document — which applies to new or ongoing prehearing conferences, applications and hearings conducted via teleconference before the tribunal — seeks to ensure that these proceedings keep progressing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The tribunal will flexibly adapt this guidance to suit the particular facts of each case and will update it as the situation continues to evolve.
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UPDATED: What emergency relief will insurers offer customers? Here’s what they told us
Canada’s P&C insurance industry should follow the example of the banking sector and show a united front in presenting options to clients adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to some brokers.
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Crowd forms at sole Service Ontario location open for written driver’s tests
A large crowd of new drivers gathered outside the Service Ontario centre at Toronto’s College Park this morning waiting to write their driver’s license test.
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Ontario’s social assistance regime ‘discriminating’ against structured settlements
Structured settlements are an important option for personal injury claimants in Ontario. Contrary to the more conventional lump sum payment that most personal injury claimants go for, a structure is a financial package, designed to meet a particular plaintiff’s needs through periodic payments, either for a fixed term or for the plaintiff’s life. In recent years, structures have grown increasingly popular among plaintiffs and insurers.
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Feds to send $600 to some Canadians with disabilities
OTTAWA — Canadians with disabilities will be sent a one-time tax-free payment of up to $600, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday, in an effort to help offset the financial pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Monitoring the CRPD: Your Feedback Matters
The Canadian Human Rights Commission is Canada’s human rights watchdog, with a responsibility to both promote and protect human rights. As a part of that role, the Commission was recently given a new responsibility to monitor the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in Canada.
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Canadians with lifelong disabilities can lose disability tax credit
Morley, 49, was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome, in 2010. The condition means even the small, routine tasks of everyday living leave him utterly exhausted and in need of prolonged rest, he said.
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Areas of Concern for Disabled People in Accessing Communities of Care During COVID-19
I, Amanda Lin, Student Engagement Facilitator for the School of Disability Studies at Ryerson University, had the pleasure of interviewing Loree Erickson, the current Ethel Louise Armstrong Post-Doctoral Fellow. The following blog post is a summary of the highlights from our hour-long conversation together.
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Telogen Effluvium, aka Stress-Induced Hair Loss
There’s a condition some doctors don’t tell their patients about. It sneaks up on an unsuspecting person. When you tentatively voice your worry about it, doctors may dismiss you because hair loss isn’t as debilitating as a concussion. Relatives tease you or pretend it’s not happening. Neither reaction makes you feel better as day after day, your hair silently leaves your scalp. You find strands and strands of hair on your pillow, in your sink, on the floor. Your brush waits for that first stroke to fill its bristles up with hair. And no one gives a damn enough about your distress to tell you why.
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Economical Mutual Insurance Company v. Sotira Tomec
The application for leave to appeal from the judgment of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, Number C66763, 2019 ONCA 882, dated November 8, 2019, is dismissed with costs.
Tomec v. Economical Mutual Insurance Company, 2019 ONCA 882 (CanLII), <http://canlii.ca/t/j37sh