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Scrap the failing no-fault insurance system

Ontario should abandon its two-and-a-half decade experiment with no-fault auto insurance, says Barrie-area personal injury lawyer Steve Rastin.

In his recent report on the state of the auto insurance in Ontario, David Marshall, the former CEO of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), delivered a withering assessment of the province’s regime after he was appointed by the government to study it.

http://www.advocatedaily.com/steve-rastin-scrap-the-failing-no-fault-insurance-system.html

Canadian auto industry seeing no reduction in accidents, but greater severity: NICC speaker

The Canadian auto industry overall is seeing no reduction in car accidents and “big cost pressures upward on severity coming from both injuries and the repairs of cars themselves,” a speaker suggested last week at the National Insurance Conference of Canada (NICC).

https://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/insurance/canadian-auto-industry-seeing-no-reduction-accidents-greater-severity-nicc-speaker-1004121790/

Treatment Plans Reasonable and Insurer Must Pay Award, Interest, and Benefits 0- FP v Aviva Insurance Company, 2017 CanLII 62160 (ON LAT 16-002861)

Special Award: Onus on applicant to prove treatment is reasonable and necessary; applicant porves this treatment reasonable and necessary; Insurer denies plans and stalls claim; applicant awarded special award, interest and benefits.

https://www.deutschmannlaw.com/blog/post/treatment-plans-reasonable-and-insurer-must-pay-award-interest-and-benefits-fp-v-aviva-insurance-company-2017-canlii-62160-on-lat-16-002861

IE’s Not Medically Warranted and Will Result in Further Delays to Hearing of Case

Mr. Almasouwi  was injured in a car accident on December 22, 2009.  He applied for SABs however when TD terminated certain benefits Mr. Almousawi applied for arbitration at the FSCO. Mr. Almasouwi has undergone a multidisciplinary assessment at the request of TD General to determine if Mr. Almasouwi is catastrophically impaired (CAT assessment), as well as his own CAT assessment.

https://www.deutschmannlaw.com/blog/post/ies-not-medically-warranted-and-will-result-in-further-delays-to-hearing-of-case-1

Ontario bill would address ‘new types of discrimination’ targeting marginalized communities

TORONTO – Discriminating against someone on the basis of their genetics, immigration status, social condition and police records would be a violation of their rights in Ontario under a proposed bill introduced in the provincial legislature.

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/7603025-ontario-bill-would-address-new-types-of-discrimination-targeting-marginalized-communities/

Proposed anti-discrimination bill covers genetics, immigration status, police records

The private member’s bill, tabled by Liberal legislator Nathalie Des Rosiers, would expand and modernize Ontario’s human rights code which was first established in 1962. If passed, the legislation would add the four new areas of rights protection to the code and give anyone discriminated against recourse they currently don’t have at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/proposed-anti-discrimination-bill-covers-genetics-immigration-status-police-records-1.3624250

Fentanyl is going missing from Ontario hospitals at an alarming rate

From single patches, to vials to entire cartons, fentanyl is going missing from hospitals across Canada, and nowhere is this happening more than in Ontario.

As the Ontario government launches an “emergency taskforce” of front-line workers to advise on next steps in the fight against the province’s opioid overdose crisis, hospitals are losing the potent drug at an increasing rate.

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/fentanyl-is-going-missing-from-ontario-hospitals-at-an-alarming-rate/

Ontario Lawyer pushes back on auto insurance legislation that violates the Charter

Campisi Charter Challenge Appeal Oct 2017

52. The legislative effects, in these circumstances, prohibit access to fundamental health care, cause ongoing serious psychological impairments, and are caused by a delay imposed by the legislation and its implementation. As such, the case is analogous to Chaoulli.

53. In summary, it is respectfully submitted that s. 267.5(1) of the Insurance Act violates s. 7 of the Charter by:

a. threatening the security of person by causing ongoing physical and psychological harm and by impeding recovery from physical and psychological damage from the accident, and

b. violating the principles of fundamental justice due to arbitrariness insofar as it is inconsistent with the objectives of the legislative scheme, overbroad by including individuals who are highly motivated to settle as quickly as possible, and grossly disproportionate as it punishes those who cannot work to a greater extent than any other group for delays in litigation.

CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/page-15.html

Wave of anti-SLAPP rulings to come

Dunphy issued a ruling last fall in a case where a doctor who was often an expert witness filed a lawsuit against the then-president elect of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association for postings she made about his credibility on an association listserv.
The Superior Court judge in Platnick v. Bent dismissed the libel action filed by the doctor and also a Charter challenge to the legislation (his ruling is one of the cases before the Court of Appeal this summer).
The independence of experts in legal proceedings is a matter of significant public importance, stated Dunphy. He rejected the doctor’s argument that whether an expression is in the public interest should require a “clear and convincing” standard of proof to be met.

Using the “Transmission of Force” Principle in MVA Claims

A recent Ontario pedestrian-accident case highlights an important legal concept that is fundamental to resolving insurance claims.

It is the “transmission of force” principle, which in multi-car accidents helps isolate the vehicle that is legally adjudged to be the root cause of the accident, and can apply to a stationary vehicle that is hit by a moving one, or to two or more moving vehicles.  By extension, the principle plays a key part in determining which of several insurers may be liable to pay for personal injury damages that may have arisen in the accident.

http://www.vandykelaw.ca/2017/10/using-the-transmission-of-force-principle-in-mva-claims/