Changes Coming to Ontario Auto Insurance To Protect Victims

November 21, 2017, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

Earlier this fall the Government of Ontario released a document called “A Strong and Fair Ontario”. The document accompanied the 2017 Fall Statement by the government and addresses a wide variety of issues facing the residents of Ontario.

You can read the summary, the speech, or see the PDF document here.

Of particular interest to my practice was the section on Auto Insurance in chapter 1. The government has pledged to continue working to further lower Ontario auto insurance rates. They reviewed the April 2017 David Marshall report called “Fair Benefits Fairly Delivered: A Review of the Auto Insurance System in Ontario” which highlighted many structural flaws in the auto insurance system in Ontario. These flaws hinder real rate reduction. The report also highlighted a lack of active management of car for victims of crashes.

The report outlined a five-part action plan with these key recommendations:

• Improving how the most common injuries are treated and managed, so that accident victims receive more timely care and further impairments do not develop due to delayed treatment;
• Establishing a system of single neutral medical assessments to provide patients with the best care options;
• Implementing lifetime management of care for catastrophically injured individuals;
• Creating a strong, independent auto insurance regulator that is more proactive and empowered to address flaws in the system; and
• Reviewing the auto insurance rate regulation framework to enable more innovation and competition that would give a greater number of options to consumers.

The government has consulted on theses recommendations and pledges to announce new measures to transform the current auto insurance system to create a more efficient system that is focussed on timely care for victims and sustained savings for consumers of the mandatory scheme of insurance.

The Government also pledged to protect innocent Co-Insured Ontarians. Currently insurance companies can deny payment of claims for loss of property due to a policy holder’s intentional criminal act or omission. A classic example of this would be a battered husband whose wife burns down the family home thereby leaving the husband with no economic ability to rebuild their home or their family. The amendments would:

• Ensure fair treatment of innocent co-insureds, including victims of domestic violence and abuse;
• Have little or no impact on insurance premiums; and
• Provide a level of protection similar to Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba.

I look forward to sharing the changes once they are announced.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

It is important that you review your accident benefit file with one of our experienced personal injury / car accident lawyers to ensure that you obtain access to all your benefits which include, but are limited to, things like physiotherapy, income replacement benefits, vocational retraining and home modifications.