Arbitrator allows insurer to respond to arbitration application more than five months after 20-day deadline

An Ontario arbitrator has allowed an insurer a mulligan after the insurer was more than five months late in filing a response to an application for arbitration.

A Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) arbitrator made an order allowing Pilot Insurance Company to file a response to an application for arbitration well beyond the 20-day deadline for filing a response.

Ontario’s Dispute Resolution Practice Code provides that if an insurer does not respond to an application for arbitration within 20 days, the default could result in the matter proceeding on an uncontested basis with the insurer’s participation.

Lianna Ferrill was injured in a motor vehicle accident on Feb. 28, 2008 and applied to Pilot for accident benefits. After mediation with her insurer over a dispute, she filed an application for arbitration on Nov. 29, 2010.

Citing an “oversight” due to “human error,” Pilot Insurance Company retained counsel, who filed the company’s response on May 31, 2011.

Despite the response being almost six months after the deadline, Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) arbitrator John Wilson cut the insurer some slack. He noted in part that FSCO’s case administrator did not follow up with the insurer about its failure to respond until Apr. 18, 2011.

“I…note that Pilot may have been somewhat lulled into complacency in this matter,” Wilson wrote. “In spite of the failure to respond, no action was taken by the Commission other than follow-up letters some months afterwards.”