“There can be no justification for doctors turning away patients or rationing care. We don’t believe Ontario’s doctors would let that happen.”– Dr. Eric Hoskins, Ontario’s Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
http://www.saultstar.com/2015/01/29/liberal-health-care-plans-a-pipe-dream—column
“Mild” traumatic brain injuries can cause significant emotional, physical, and cognitive impairments. Associated outcomes can include depression, post-concussion symptoms, disability, underemployment, low income, and marital instability. Yet, mild traumatic brain injuries often go undetected because of the inability of conventional imaging tests to identify them.
http://oatleyvigmond.com/mild-traumatic-brain-injury/#.VMqWjy5YwdV
FSCO regularly publishes Bulletins which are meant to guide insurers and claimants on the permissible and impermissible practices surrounding claims for accident benefits. In FSCO Bulletin A-14/14, along with outlining regulatory amendments which were to take effect on December 1, 2014, FSCO also sent a strong message about mileage expenses for treatment providers, which will discriminate against claimants who live anywhere other than large towns and cities and which will also unfairly penalize treatment providers who are prepared to do field work instead of in-clinic work.
SCC has blown wide open the grounds for a contractual dispute
The Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark decision in Bhasin v. Hrynew [2014] S.C.J. No. 71, makes it clear that there is now a common law duty to act honestly in the performance of all contractual obligations. Previously, duties of good faith had been recognized in particular types of contracts (for example, in employment, insurance and franchise agreements), with respect to particular types of contractual provisions (as in contractual clauses which provide for the exercise of discretionary powers) and in particular types of contractual relationships.
http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/index.php?section=article&volume=34&number=35&article=3
Reasons for judgement were released today by the BC Court of Appeal (C.P. v. RBC Life Insurance Company) confirming that a trial judge does not have the option of awarding a Defendant double costs in circumstances where a Plaintiff obtains a judgement at a quantum below a Defendant’s formal offer to settle. In noting this restriction in judicial costs options the Court provided the following reasons:
A Toronto-based personal injury lawyer is challenging, on constitutional grounds, an amendment to Ontario’s Insurance Act that changes the dispute resolution for auto insurance claims.
TORONTO – With last year’s passage of Bill 15, the “Fighting Fraud and Reducing Automobile Insurance Rates Act, 2014”, the handling of accident benefits disputes in Ontario is to be passed from the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) to the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT).
http://www.ilstv.com/resolving-auto-insurance-benefit-disputes-stacked-public%E2%80%8B/
Joseph Campisi, a Toronto area personal injury has launched a constitutional challenge to Bill 15, Fighting Fraud and Reducing Auto Insurance Rates Act, 2014. The bill received Royal Assent in November 2014 and introduces a number of changes to the auto insurance system including:
This past holiday season, food banks all across Ontario benefited from the generosity of their communities. Ontarians came together to donate food and financial support, both of which will make an enormous difference in the lives of people who struggle to make ends meet.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ontario-association-of-food-banks/food-banks_b_6557678.html
In a rare move, the province’s regulatory board has dismissed allegations of professional misconduct against a Hamilton psychiatrist who allegedly sexually abused a female patient.