Limitation Period Trumps Invalid Election
The recent FSCO decision on a preliminary issue in Kanagalingam v. Economical Mutual Insurance Company[1] confirms that insurers can rely on the statutory two-year limitation period when a weekly benefit is properly denied, even if the underlying election of benefits...
Disclosure Requirements for Statutory Third Parties
Two cases decided within the last year have confirmed that an insurer which adds itself as a Third Party pursuant to Section 258 (14) of the Insurance Act (the off-coverage insurer) is required to answer questions and disclose information in...
Insurers Beware: Costs Awards Need NOT Be Proportional to Damage Awards
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has provided us with two reminders this May that costs awards need not be proportional to damage awards, as exemplified by the cases below. In Mancini Associates LLP v. Guido et al., 2016 ONSC...
Ontario Court of Appeal provides Clarification on Assessments Performed by Professionals who are not “health practitioners”
The Ontario Court of Appeal in Ziebenhaus v. Bahlieda, 2015 ONCA 471, recently provided clarification on a contentious issue in personal injury litigation. The plaintiff sustained a brain injury in a skiing accident while on a school trip to Mount...
Retrospectively or Not Retrospectively – That is the Question
The issue of whether the recent amendments to Ontario’s Insurance Act dealing with the indexation of the statutory deductible to inflation was recently before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Corbett v. Odorico, 2016 ONSC 1964 (CanLII). Following...
Court of Appeal Takes Expansive Approach to Definition of “Accident” In Caughy Decision
The Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in Caughy v. Economical Mutual Insurance Company 2016 ONCA 226 seems to have expanded the definition of “accident,” for the purposes of statutory accident benefits, to include a trip and fall incident. Recall the...
Employees Who Rent Vehicles for Work: Liability Insurance Implications When Accidents Occur
The frequency with which employees rent vehicles for employment purposes is a common occurrence. Amendments to certain legislation in Ontario introduced a priority scheme for liability coverage, and corresponding changes to the standard Ontario Automobile Policy reconfigured personal coverage to...
Containing the Spread of Fire(wall)
Implementation of internal firewalls between accident benefits and bodily injury departments has been a struggle for automobile insurers since the publication of the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s Bulletin 184, called “Internal Transfer of Information from Accident Benefits Adjuster to Tort...
Advanced Payments: When and Why?
With the pending changes to the SABS, tort adjusters will undoubtedly be called upon by Plaintiff counsel to make advance payments to cover such things as medical expenses, lost wages and attendant care. Seriously injured Plaintiff’s facing a combined $65,000...
Procedural Fairness and Due Process Trump Arbitrator’s Award – Appeal Allowed
As the sun begins to set on FSCO, Director’s Delegate Blackman rendered a Preliminary Issues Appeal order in Waldock v. State Farm (FSCO Appeal P15-00068, March 18, 2016) which serves as a helpful reminder to those who descend into the...
