FAIR – supporting auto accident victims through advocacy and education
FAIR – supporting auto accident victims through advocacy and education
FAIR – supporting auto accident victims through advocacy and education
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Millions of vehicles in Canada, an estimated one in six, have an outstanding safety recall, and auto industry experts say not enough is being done to fix them.
These include cars with safety defects that may result in crashes, injury or death, according to the manufacturers.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/
“The age of 25 is cited and used for lower rates,” said Pete Karageorgos, director, consumer and industry relations with the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). “Typically, this is based on claims data, and drivers under age 25 usually record more crashes than drivers 25 and over.”
The Ontario Rehab Alliance commends Mr. Marshall for his thorough and thoughtful review of Ontario’s Auto Insurance: Fair Benefits, Fairly Delivered.
This report rightly focusses on the needs of injured persons and the importance of eliminating obstacles to timely access to treatment. The ORA urges consultation with stakeholders and cautious consideration by government on of how to bring about the suggested changes.
Last week, the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) told us what we already know: Auto insurance rates in Ontario are the highest in the land. In fact, they’re higher by an average of 55 per cent.
http://driving.ca/auto-news/ne
So, I see a twitter link to a new court case where an insurance defence expert is criticized for failing to understand his role as an objective expert. The court says that the doctor mischaracterized his current practice and experience in order to downplay the amount of insurance defence work he had done and play up the inaccurate idea that he was still a practising specialist at a major health institute. The Court found that the doctor was not credible or reliable. It stated that “Dr. Hershberg was cavalier in his approach to the requirement to be accurate with respect to his curriculum vitae, when obtaining information from the plaintiff during the examination, and in reporting as to the information he obtained from the plaintiff.”
http://iavgo.org/why-arent-we-
It’s no surprise to learn that Ontario’s auto insurance regime is an expensive mess, but the numbers in a new report for the provincial government are still shocking. Ontario drivers are paying $4 billion a year more than they would if Ontario’s rates were at the Canadian average. That’s more than $500 for every car insured.
http://www.kingstonthisweek.co
Recently, perhaps as a response to MPP Mike Colle’s private member’s bill, some in the media have taken to defending personal injury lawyers and legal contingency fees.
I have to wonder if any of these people has ever been injured in a car accident or had to enlist the services of a personal injury lawyer.
A 15-per-cent cap on contingency fees could spark an access-to-justice crisis, says Kitchener civil litigator Graham Bennett.
In March, Toronto MPP Mike Colle introduced a private member’s bill, the proposed Personal Injury and Accident Victims Protection Act, that, if passed, would enact amendments to Ontario’s Solicitors Act and its Law Society Act to limit lawyers’ fees to 15 per cent of the total settlement received by their personal injury clients. The bill, which passed first reading in the provincial legislature, would also ban referral fees paid between lawyers for files.
http://www.advocatedaily.com/g
“There is clear urgency to make the accident benefits system simple and accessible without the need for legal representation,” says the report, written by David Marshall, former CEO of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. “In many ways, the need to have lawyers involved to negotiate settlements in what should be a straightforward, no-fault, accident benefits system signals a failure in the system.”
For the first decade of my legal career I was an insurance defence litigator. Firmly entrenched in that practice, I will reluctantly admit that my then-impression of the opposing counsel who worked for injured plaintiffs, with notable exceptions, was clichéd.