Topic Legal
Ontario’s insurance regulator needs to get tougher on market misconduct issues: CEOs
October 22, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterOntario’s insurance regulator needs to get tougher on market misconduct, insurance company CEOs told brokers at the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO)’s 90th Annual Convention in Niagara Falls.Suggestions at the IBAO’s CEO panel discussion included:• a more transparent method…
B.C. insurance broker association to act as intervenor in privacy complaint about credit scoring and insurance
October 21, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterThe Insurance Brokers Association of B.C. (IBABC) is acting as an intervenor in the province’s first complaint to the B.C. Privacy Commissioner about the use of credit scoring in an insurance transaction. Currently, it is legal for insurers in B.C.…
Ontario PC Party Leader Tim Hudak vows to get tough on auto insurance fraud
October 21, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterTim Hudak, leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, has vowed to crack down on fraudsters working in the auto insurance system should he become premier. Hudak addressed the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario’s 90th Annual Convention in Niagara Falls…
Waivers more likely to reduce exposures in B.C. than in Ontario: B.C. defence counsel
October 21, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterThe efficacy of waivers in reducing a company’s risk exposure is uneven in Canada, and is more likely to be effective in B.C. than in Ontario, according to Lorne Folick, senior partner at Dolden Wallace Folick LLP.Folick was discussing liquor…
Demand for professional indemnity coverage surges in Oct. 1 renewal season: Aon
October 20, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterDemand for professional indemnity (PI) coverage by the legal profession surged nearly 400% over 2009 leading up to Oct. 1 renewals, reports Aon.By August 2010, Aon reported receiving nearly four times the number of proposals than the same time last…
Selling a home is not proof of intention to buy new one, arbitrator rules
October 19, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterOn an “expenses incurred” issue, an Ontario arbitrator has found a claimant catastrophically injured in a car accident is not obligated to purchase a new home before an insurer is liable to pay home modification benefits.Nevertheless, the arbitrator added, in…
Securities lawsuits ramp up even as credit crisis winds down
October 14, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterThe credit crisis may have abated, but the pace of securities lawsuit filings in the United States has quickened, according to an Advisen report.The report, sponsored by Ace, notes 284 securities lawsuits have been filed so far in 2010 Q3.…
Ontario court delves into the timing of threshold motions during jury trials
October 13, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterOntario’s courts seem to be in a quandary about the timing of hearing a threshold motion in a jury trial. A threshold motion under s. 276.5(15) of the Insurance Act determines whether an auto injury is “serious or permanent.”The quandary…
Company director’s risk profile in D&O program is tied to company’s overall risk profile
October 13, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterThe risk profile of a company director is increasingly becoming synonymous with the risk profile of the entire company, according to Jordon Solway, general counsel and vice president at Munich Canada.Solway spoke at a D&O seminar sponsored by the Ontario…
Insurers must reassess reports to avoid special awards in arbitration
October 12, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterInsurers not wishing to be vulnerable to special awards in arbitration must be prepared to reassess new information contradicting reports upon which the denial of a claim is based.In Sanmuganathan Elaiathamby and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Ontario’s insurance…
Ontario Superior Court dismisses claim that insurer’s investigation constituted abuse of process and conspiracy
October 8, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterThe Ontario Superior Court ruled that a plaintiff’s claim that an insurer’s investigation constituted abuse of process and conspiracy was scandalous, frivolous and vexatious. In Pontillo v. Zinger et. Al., Antoinetta Pontillo was involved in a car accident with Todd…
Insurer’s exemption ruled invalid because it is written in the present tense
October 7, 2010 by Canadian UnderwriterThe Ontario Court of Appeal has ordered The Personal Insurance Company to defend two homeowners accused of negligently representing the condition of their home in a sale to others, because the exclusion meant to cover ‘breach of contract’ was written…