Mediation applications in Ontario should be sent to insurers, not just the regulator: lawyer

An application for mediation in Ontario does not have to be sent to an insurer, only the regulator, which is a problem with the system, according to Philippa Samworth, a partner with Dutton Brock LLP.
Samworth spoke as a panel member during the 45th Annual Canadian Insurance Claims Managers Association (CICMA)/ Canadian Independent Adjusters’ Association (CIAA) Ontario Chapter Joint Conference on Feb. 7, 2012 in Toronto.
To initiate the process, a claimant must send an application for mediation to the regulator, the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO).
Mediation must occur within 60 days of FSCO receiving the application for mediation. This timetable looms large if FSCO does not have the resources to conduct the mediation within this timeframe, and the insurer does not know an application has been filed with FSCO.
Samworth mused that if insurers were required to receive a copy of the application, the mediation case backlog would be far less severe. An insurer would be able to look at the application, review it and potentially settle it, getting it out of the system.
However, as it stands now, insurers are unaware these applications are sitting at FSCO. Insurers can go in to the system and look for mediation applications, but they cannot do so until the application is registered.
“FSCO is not going to register them, because that means that they’ve deemed the application complete,” Samworth said. “The minute they deem the application complete, the 60-day period runs to setting up the mediation.
“They can’t get the date set [because of the existing case backlog], so they are saying, ‘Nobody can say this is complete except us, and therefore the 60 days doesn’t begin to run until we say it’s complete,’ so they [the applications] just sit there.”