Personal Injury and Litigation Blogs
Heads Up: Half Of Defence Lawyers Expect To Be Busier Next Year
Insurance Business Canada recently released the results of a large nation-wide survey of insurance companies and the lawyers they retain. The good news for plaintiff lawyers is that half (47%) of defence lawyers expect more work in the coming year, so you can too. The other half anticipates the same workload as this year; none expect their workload to decrease. IBC asked about the biggest legal issues facing the industry
Litigation Loans For ODSP Recipients
If any of your clients are receiving Ontario Disability Support Program benefits while waiting for an insurance settlement for personal injury, they might qualify for a loan from Nudorra Capital. Nudorra can lend up to ten per cent (10%) of the claim’s value, under certain conditions. Please note that we cannot lend funds on a Structured Settlement. The key is to maximize the amount of the settlement that ODSP does
Add Ontario to the provinces reviewing auto insurance
In 2020, Alberta released a report that looked at auto insurance across Canada and in other countries. The panel of three experts recommended a no-fault auto insurance system, like that in British Columbia. This year, Quebec’s Panel of Experts on Automobile Insurance Contributions (Conseil d’experts sur les contributions d’assurance automobile) invited the public to voice their opinions on the amendments proposed by the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ)
Insurance changes make life harder for plaintiff counsel
A few years ago, we asked Ontario lawyers about the increasing difficulty of practising personal injury law, given the province’s changes to automobile insurance. Recent changes by the British Columbia and Alberta governments are creating similar problems for plaintiff personal injury lawyers in Western Canada. We interviewed Marc Spivak, a partner at Devry Smith Frank LLP in Toronto, for our last article. The trends he identified then have continued, in
COVID-19 “long-haulers” face disability insurance difficulties
A growing number of people report serious long-lasting, debilitating effects from the COVID-19 virus weeks and months after infection. These people are known as “long-haulers”. Long-haulers are characterized as those who have been sick with COVID-19 symptoms for one month or more and continue to experience the impact of the virus in every aspect of their daily functioning. The number of long-haulers is unknown, but in the USA, estimates are
Could ICBC changes spread across Canada?
Provincial governments across Canada are constantly looking for ways to reduce auto insurance rates. To do this, they have tried public and private insurance regimes, changed coverage and benefits, or instituted tribunals to streamline legal systems. British Columbia’s latest changes could tempt other provinces to significantly reduce injured plaintiffs’ access to justice. In 2020, BC’s NDP government introduced Bill 11, the Attorney General Statutes (Vehicle Insurance) Amendment Act, 2020. This
Canada’s Courts were Backlogged before the COVID Crisis
For several years, personal injury lawyers representing plaintiffs have told us many reasons that cases take too long. Litigious insurance companies, requests for overly detailed medical reports, centralization of adjusters, armies of experts, and defence counsel delaying tactics have all been mentioned. In addition, the court systems in many provinces have suffered systemic problems for years. In British Columbia, a record of 140 provincial Supreme Court trials, were postponed in
Are Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Injury Tribunals Fair?
Two provinces now have tribunals to handle some aspects of insurance disputes involving MVA personal injuries. British Columbia’s Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) was set up in 2016 to remove some small claims from the provincial court and some disputes from the B.C. Supreme Court. In 2019, the Attorney-General also moved minor personal injury claims (up to $5,000) out of court and into the CRT. The CRT’s administrative adjudication process is
Tips for Successfully Recovering Litigation Loan Interest Charges
A plaintiff has already suffered serious personal injury and endured the financial hardship that accompanied it, not to mention the stress of a daunting court case. Your client should not also have to absorb litigation loan costs, which are clearly the responsibility of the insurance company. Insurance companies use delaying tactics, not to accumulate more information about the file to build a better case, but to force an injured plaintiff
ODSP and CERB/CSRB during the COVID-19 emergency
There has been some confusion about how the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CSRB) income programs will affect the income of Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) recipients during the COVID-19 crisis. For all ODSP applicants and recipients, CERB and CSRB payments must be reported, and are treated similarly to employment earnings: CERB: The first $200, and 50 per cent of each additional dollar, received in
