All too frequently, I hear about motorists who don’t know their rights and end up making bad decisions after an auto collision.
This is regrettable because in all of these situations, they could have avoided excessive towing/storage fees and repair costs if they had known their legal rights and options.
http://www.wheels.ca/news/know
The biggest challenge of a Plaintiff Personal Injury Lawyer is not only trying to convey the injured accident victim’s case, but also trying to keep the jury engaged. The more engaged the jury, the greater chance that your theory of the case is sinking in.
In an emailed statement to CBC News, company spokeswoman Danielle Rioux said a lot of information is taken into consideration before SSQ renders a claims decision, including independent medical assessments.
https://www5.fsco.gov.on.ca/AD/5132
The Applicant, Mr. Dharam Sidhu, was injured in a motor vehicle accident on August 4, 1990 (“1990 accident”) and in 2014, sought accident benefits in the nature of weekly income replacement benefits, interest and expenses from Aviva Canada Inc. (“Aviva”).[1] The parties were unable to resolve their disputes through Mediation, and the Applicant, through his representative, applied for Arbitration at the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (“FSCO”) under the Insurance Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. I.8, as amended (“Insurance Act”) (FSCO A14-005391).
The Applicant was also injured in a motor vehicle accident on January 19, 1996 (“1996 accident”) and in 2014, sought accident benefits in the nature of weekly income replacement benefits, weekly loss of earning capacity benefits, supplementary medical expenses and a special award from Aviva. The parties were unable to resolve their disputes through Mediation, and the Applicant, through his representative, applied for Arbitration at FSCO under the Insurance Act (FSCO A14-009047). The two Arbitrations are treated as related files heard together.
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I have no doubt on the evidence that an ordinary reasonable person with the accident history and access to legal advice of this Applicant could have concluded that, if he had a genuine dispute with the DAC Assessment and the denial of benefits, he had to take some steps, at least to Mediation. But how much more depth there was to his knowledge is pure speculation. The Insurer in the Golic decision wrote a much more extensive description of process and referred to the Insured’s previous history of participating in two Mediations under the Insurance Act. The letter in Golic also referred to the sections of the Insurance Act and the steps in the event the Mediation failed.
While I recognize the concern that an Insured might undermine the consumer protection principles of the legislation by not pursuing his or her rights promptly, limitation provisions should be strictly construed, and a layman’s language notice of the limitation period in which to bring his claim and the process following the Mediation open to him was specifically absent in the documentation provided to this Applicant. I distinguish this case from Golic on the basis of the contents of the notices and correspondence.
Therefore, I find that Aviva failed to establish that it met the requirements set out in Smith v. Co-operators of setting out in straightforward and clear language either the time limits or the process available to the Applicant.
Back in 2013, the province said they would lower auto insurance rates by 15 per cent. Since then rates have decreased overall, but the road to achieving a 15 per cent reduction in rates is long and the final destination is still off in the distance.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/a
In a win for consumers and injured plaintiffs across Canada, the Supreme Court has ruled 7-0 that insurers can’t reduce their excess insurance payouts under their auto policies’ standard endorsement form 44 by the amount of plaintiffs’ Canada Pension Plan disability benefits.
When an Ontario auto insurer notifies a claimant that he or she has not sustained a catastrophic impairment, that does not constitute the denial of a benefit for the purposes of the two-year limitation on filing a lawsuit, a lawyer warned claims professionals recently.
“As of April 1, 2016, the Licence Appeal Tribunal of the Safety, Licensing Appeals and Standards Tribunal Ontario (SLASTO) has assumed all new applications for dispute resolution services. FSCO will no longer accept applications for mediation, neutral evaluation and arbitrations filed on or after April 1, 2016. This includes applications for arbitration where the Report of Mediator is issued before or after April 1, 2016. FSCO will continue to be responsible for all files remaining open as of March 31, 2016.”
http://www.lexology.com/librar
Facts: P is a medical doctor with a family practice in a walk-in clinic. In 2009 and 2010 six of his female patients complained of improper sexual touching. After a contested hearing, a panel of the College’s Discipline Committee found that P had sexually abuse four patients and committed disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional conduct with a fifth. Two of the cases in which sexual abuse was found also led to criminal findings of guilt.