FAIR Association of Victims for Accident Insurance Reform
‘FAIR – supporting auto accident victims through advocacy and education’
My
name is Rhona DesRoches and I am the Board Chair of FAIR Association of
Victims for Accident Insurance Reform - a not-for-profit that advocates
for fair treatment of Ontario's accident victims.
I
was just reading an article in Legal Feeds by Yamri Taddese regarding
your study of the ill effects of the lack of access to justice on
Canadian's health. I've taken a look at your website and from what I
understand the study surveyed 3000 individuals across Canada.
I'm
wondering if your ongoing study will include car accident cases in the
civil courts? According to recently released statistics from StatsCan
there are currently 61,063 auto insurance related cases that are in
Ontario's civil courts. According to the latest data there are an
additional 34,075 mediation or arbitration cases pending at the
Financial Services Commission of Ontario Dispute Resolution System (DRS)
unit. That's a total of 95,138 unresolved MVA claims that are in
Ontario's courts alone and these are all people with physical injuries,
often cognitively impaired and facing serious challenges in overcoming
traumatic injury. An
indication of the dysfunctional legal climate in Ontario is that the
volume of auto insurance cases before the civil courts in Ontario is up
42% since 2009/2010 according to the StatsCan website, an increase in
cases that is far greater than the other provinces who were part of the
survey.
Victims
must deal with their insurance company and comply with Ontario's
legislation that requires attendance at third party for-hire medical
expert assessments arranged by their insurer where a victim's injuries
are more than likely minimized or deflated in order to control insurer
pay-outs. This leads victims back to their own treating physicians who
continue to try and help their patients - just because your insurer's
bought and paid for opinion vendors say there is nothing wrong or have
minimized an injury doesn't mean you are magically made better. In fact,
the opposite is more likely to be true. Hobbling treating practitioners
and favoring insurer driven medical opinions in our courts works
against the health of MVA victims and significantly impacts health care
costs through repeat doctor visits along the way to undoing the damage
done by insurer medical 'experts'.
According to
the Ontario auditor General's report in 2011, about half of all auto
accident claims in Ontario are turned down by Ontario's insurers. On
average that would be around 30,000 injured people each year who are
injured and whose health is made worse by the lack of timely access to
treatment and by the often vindictive treatment at the hands of their
insurer. So victims, without basic funding (income replacement) often
face bankruptcy and often have no access to needed rehabilitation. They
are unable to reach their maximum recovery and they know it; they know
it while its happening to them, and that they are losing the window of
opportunity so they are definitely at a higher risk of developing
psychological issues. Many victims suffer from PTSD and it isn't always
from the accident trauma itself but is caused by the protracted claims
experience while they wait for justice in our courts.
Ontario's
insurance companies have a delay and deny business model that causes
serious harm to those who find they must use the insurance product. I
have yet, in my capacity of assisting these individuals, to meet a MVA
victim, including myself, that wasn't harmed psychologically at the
hands of the insurer that denied their legitimate claim.
Your
study is based on the economic costs of one extra visit per year to
deal with stresses related to having a court case. From my experience in
dealing with MVA victims I can tell you that there would be multiple of
visits per year to treating physicians while going through Ontario's
No-Fault Auto Insurance system. Victims are required by law to attend at
insurer medical examinations (IME) many times during a claim and there
is a proliferation of biased medical experts in the system whose
partisan reports have been prepared for use in our courts. An accident
victim will often wait 5 to 8 years to finally get to a hearing and the
longer it takes to get there the more money is made by those who serve
them, Ontario's insurers, defense and plaintiff lawyers, and medical
assessors. Some victims are sent to up to 47 IMEs during the course of a
denied and delayed claim and there would be an equal or greater number
of medical visits through our public systems. OHIP, welfare and Ontario
Disability Support Program (ODSP), all pick up the tab when insurers
fail to pay.
The dysfunctional auto insurance
scheme in Ontario is based on, and indeed dependent on, these bogus and
substandard medical opinions to delay and deny claims and the subsequent
backlog of cases in our courts is the result. Ontario's third party
medical assessors oversight consists of self-regulatory colleges who
protect their member interests over the public's interest and so that
secrecy and protection is a fundamental problem. The lack of fiduciary
duty to MVA claimants, who are considered clients and not patients, and
to whom the physician owes no duty of care further marginalizes the
accident victim. The lack of transparency and regulatory oversight from
Ontario's colleges is at the core of the court dysfunction (and that is a
necessity to Ontario's insurers) has contributed to the lack of public
trust in this abysmal and virtually non-existent oversight is chronicled
in CPSO's ongoing consultation on transparency.
So
when looking to examine the user-centered perspective to understand the
connections between the law and legal problems there would likely not
be a better sample to look at than Ontario's auto accident claimants who
are stuck in a system that criminalizes and punishes them at every turn
while denying timely access to justice. All while Ontario's elite and
privately paid physician assessors put up obstacles in the way of their
achieving wellness and whose boldly biased and often unqualified
opinions are given a free pass by their colleges which allows them to
continue to sabotage both victims and our courts with impunity in a
system that causes medical harm.
Ontario's
answer to the court backlog is to pass Bill 15 and a Licensed Appeal
Tribunal (LAT) system of hearings without correcting the underlying
dishonesty in the system. The future looks bleak for victims who will be
simply shoved through the dishonest system faster.
I
look forward to further updates on your study and hope that you will
include MVA victim circumstances and outcomes in your upcoming material.
If I can be of assistance in respect to your study, please let me know.
I've included links below that substantiate the facts and figures of
what I've said above and much of the information can also be accessed on
the FAIR website at http://www.fairassociation.
Best regards
Rhona DesRoches
FAIR, Board Chair
2014 - 61,063 active court cases/Ontario/auto accident http://www5.statcan.
2013 - DRS Interim Report 23,323/mediation and 10,752/arbitration
Ontario Auditor General 2011 report on Auto Insurance http://www.auditor.
Current College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario CPSO consultations in respect to transparency at: http://policyconsult.cpso.on.
HCDB 2014 Report with stats on MVA victims http://www.
Resolving auto insurance benefit disputes stacked against public http://www.torontosun.com/
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