In Aviva Insurance Company of Canada v. Dittmann, released on March 15, 2018, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed a leave to appeal application by Aviva and ordered the insurer to pay Ms. Dittmann’s legal costs.
Read More about Ms. Dittmann’s Automobile Insurance Success Against Aviva
Early this year, the government asked for public input into the future of auto insurance in Ontario. We were cautiously optimistic that they wanted genuine participation from the people most affected by any reforms. However, now that the “Blueprint” has been published as part of the 2019 Budget, it is clear the Liberals have little interest in putting drivers first.
Read More about Putting Drivers First? The Government’s Blueprint for Insurance Reform Revealed
Concussions are often referred to as invisible injuries because they are hard to detect. Fortunately, over the years there have been some advances in medicine that enable those in the medical field to detect even the tiniest signs of injury in the brain.
Read More about How to Prove Concussion in Personal Injury Cases
In H.S. and Allstate Insurance (2018 CanLII 132563), the parties held a Preliminary Issue hearing before Adjudicator Deborah Neilson of the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT). The Applicant, H.S. was seriously injured in a car accident on August 18, 2016. She submitted an application for Determination of Catastrophic Impairment (catastrophic) to the Respondent, Allstate, her automobile insurer. Allstate rejected the application. It claimed that she had used the form for accidents that occurred before June 1, 2016, whereas her collision occurred after June 1, 2016, when the current version of the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS) came into force. The significance of this distinction involved both the criteria for meeting the catastrophic definition and the amount of benefits available if she was successful.
Read More about ACCIDENT BENEFITS UPDATE: Which CAT definition applies to transitional policies?
In Pucci v. Wawanesa (2019 ONSC 1706), a recent Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision, the court weighed in on causation in a catastrophic impairment (catastrophic) claim. The plaintiff claimant, Brittany Pucci, had been injured in a car accident on June 16, 2013. She suffered various physical injuries and psychological impairments following the accident. Her insurer, Wawanesa paid for her accident benefits including income replacement benefits (IRBs), attendant care (AC) and housekeeping and home maintenance (HKHM) as required under the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS) until her non-catastrophic limits were exhausted. Following termination, she applied to the Court for declarations that she had suffered a catastrophic impairment from a mental or behavioral disorder (MBD), and that she was entitled to ongoing IRBs, HKHM and AC benefits.
Mr. Cowdrey was involved in a serious motorcycle accident on September 15, 2013. He was riding alone just after midnight in Innisfil, Ontario when he struck a pothole and was thrown from his motorcycle. He suffered life-threatening injuries including a serious traumatic brain injury and extensive physical injuries including the loss of his left eye. He was airlifted to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto and placed in a medically induced coma for 2 weeks. As a result of the severity of his injuries, he was deemed catastrophically impaired pursuant to the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS) under the Insurance Act.
Read More about Accident Benefits Updates: Motorcycle Accident
Concussions (aka: mild Traumatic Brain injuries) are in the news a lot in sports-related injuries- especially hockey and football as high-profile athletes suffer repeated head injuries that can shorten their careers and permanently impact their lives. As a result, more attention and money has been devoted recently to understanding the diagnosis and treatment and long-term effects of concussions.
On March 20, 2020, the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT) released its decision in J.W. v. Security National Insurance Company (2020 CanLII 30385). The central question in this decision concerned a catastrophically injured (catastrophic) applicant’s entitlement to Attendant Care (AC) benefits, and the quantum of those benefits if found reasonable and necessary. The applicant, J.W. had been seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident on October 20, 2014 while riding a motorized scooter. He sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and multiple orthopedic and other injuries. Security National, his accident benefits insurer, accepted that he was catastrophic.
THE POST-ACCIDENT CONCUSSION DILEMMA
Read More about Ontario Researchers Develop Concussion Blood Test
This motion in Maria-Antony v. Ivaschenko, 2019 ONSC 4731 was brought by the defendants for leave to conduct a second psychiatric assessment of the plaintiff, Bridget Maria-Antony, who had been injured in two car accidents in 2009 and 2010. The moving defendants were involved in the second accident.
