The Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) is a national association of provincial and territorial governments. They recently released two related reports: their Annual Statement on Market Conduct (ASMC) and their Cooperative Fair Treatment of Customers (FTC) Review. These lay out the standards expected of insurance companies in dealing with their customers and provide data on how many insurers are
Disability lawyers can expect continued demand in 2022 from various COVID-related issues. We have recently written articles about the denial of disability insurance claims related to “long-haul” COVID-19 symptoms. The “shadow” pandemic includes other lingering health issues that will affect short-term disability (STD) and long-term disability (LTD) insurance claims. According to the 2021 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey, more than half
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.
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
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
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,
With the resurgence of COVID 19, the Ontario Superior Court has suspended jury selection in the “hot spots” of Toronto, Ottawa, and Brampton for one month. All settlement conferences will be conducted over Zoom. Whether to continue jury trials in progress will be decided by the trial judge. In-person non-jury trials and other in-person proceedings (including civil matters) in these
