Sadly, it is with ongoing regularity that we see
people with mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) being trapped within
minor injury claim limits following motor vehicle accidents. The problem
that we see time and again is that the mTBI is dismissed by the insurer
in the absence of immediately available objective findings...
MORE-Source:
http://oatleyvigmond.com/from-mig-to-cat-the-difficulties-of-a-claim-for-mild-traumatic-brain-injury/#.VQxtWY4ynLk
CIN is a non-profit Advocate for Insurance and Health Care Reform. Postings are cut/paste from other sources. @Cinsurancenews #rally4accidentvictims #ABPetition #CPPbacklog
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Brokers Feel Used
White Lies Being Told By Clients:Poll
by Donald Horne | 16 Mar 20,2015
Insurance Business
We asked brokers what percentage of their clients were telling white lies when it came to their auto insurance policies – and the numbers aren’t encouraging.
Five said that ‘probably half’ of their clients are fibbing on their auto insurance, with four estimating between ‘10-20 per cent’ and four more saying they believe ‘less than 5 per cent.’
Perhaps more telling, three brokers felt that ‘most of them (50-75 per cent)’ were telling lies, while another three felt that ‘just about everybody (over 75 per cent)’ were lying on their auto insurance for a cheaper premium.
Two brokers felt that ‘almost 30 per cent’ of their clients weren’t being completely honest on their auto insurance, while no one voted for 5-10 per cent.
According to Anne Marie Thomas of Insurance Hotline, small lies consumers tell when applying for insurance falsely inflate the cost for everyone. In fact, roughly 15 per cent of people’s insurance premiums go toward covering false claims.
“There are smaller types of insurance fraud that people commit, and you don’t even think of it being fraud,” said Thomas in the article, ‘The reason your clients are paying an extra $3bn in annual premiums.’ “For example, telling your insurer ‘I don’t drive to work,’ and the truth is, you drive 50 kilometres one way to work.”
Our next poll looks at the statement made by the head of the Royal Bank of Canada last week, hinting that he may be taking his company out of the P&C space.
Brokers Feel Used
I usually find articles in Insurance Business website informative even though they are typically very brief.However,this piece doesn’t educate anyone on anything as it relies on insurance brokers guessing they may have been scammed by their clients based on how they “felt”. Very scientific poll.Possibly 21 brokers were questioned,we’re not told how large or small the sample was.Regardless,they think they have liars for clients.Some thought clients were “fibbing”,some were “lying”or were “telling lies”when making a claim.Some clients”weren’t being completely honest” according to this poll.What is the distinction between fibbing,lying,telling lies and not being completely honest,you’re either lying or your not.
Then this article trots out another statistic,it’s validity in question as well.The consumer is being forever being told that fraud increases each driver’s premiums by 15 %. Collectively,that costs drivers 3 billion every year.But hang on,the insurance industry has also claims that fraud costs them 3 billion dollars every year(currently the IBC website has lowered their claim down to 2 billion). That’s 5-6 billion every year,an unsubstantiated claim.There’s no denying that fraud does occur but to the extent that the IBC makes it out to be is to fantastical to believe.A forensic report produced by KPMG offers different information on the amount of fraud the industry claims they are victims of.
The June 13,2012 report,Auto Insurance Fraud in Ontario states that fraud in Ontario “ranges between $770 million and $1.6 billion per year.”That’s a wide spectrum but understandable when you read the report,it’s difficult to quantify because perpetrators attempt to avoid detection.What this ultimately admits is they just don’t know.
One day maybe we can all have an adult conversation regarding auto insurance in Ontario but with such obtuse information that’s constantly evangelically promoted by the malpractice media,that discussion isn’t in the near future.
Source: http://thecrashtested.com/brokers-feel-used/
by Donald Horne | 16 Mar 20,2015
Insurance Business
We asked brokers what percentage of their clients were telling white lies when it came to their auto insurance policies – and the numbers aren’t encouraging.
Five said that ‘probably half’ of their clients are fibbing on their auto insurance, with four estimating between ‘10-20 per cent’ and four more saying they believe ‘less than 5 per cent.’
Perhaps more telling, three brokers felt that ‘most of them (50-75 per cent)’ were telling lies, while another three felt that ‘just about everybody (over 75 per cent)’ were lying on their auto insurance for a cheaper premium.
Two brokers felt that ‘almost 30 per cent’ of their clients weren’t being completely honest on their auto insurance, while no one voted for 5-10 per cent.
According to Anne Marie Thomas of Insurance Hotline, small lies consumers tell when applying for insurance falsely inflate the cost for everyone. In fact, roughly 15 per cent of people’s insurance premiums go toward covering false claims.
“There are smaller types of insurance fraud that people commit, and you don’t even think of it being fraud,” said Thomas in the article, ‘The reason your clients are paying an extra $3bn in annual premiums.’ “For example, telling your insurer ‘I don’t drive to work,’ and the truth is, you drive 50 kilometres one way to work.”
Our next poll looks at the statement made by the head of the Royal Bank of Canada last week, hinting that he may be taking his company out of the P&C space.
Brokers Feel Used
I usually find articles in Insurance Business website informative even though they are typically very brief.However,this piece doesn’t educate anyone on anything as it relies on insurance brokers guessing they may have been scammed by their clients based on how they “felt”. Very scientific poll.Possibly 21 brokers were questioned,we’re not told how large or small the sample was.Regardless,they think they have liars for clients.Some thought clients were “fibbing”,some were “lying”or were “telling lies”when making a claim.Some clients”weren’t being completely honest” according to this poll.What is the distinction between fibbing,lying,telling lies and not being completely honest,you’re either lying or your not.
Then this article trots out another statistic,it’s validity in question as well.The consumer is being forever being told that fraud increases each driver’s premiums by 15 %. Collectively,that costs drivers 3 billion every year.But hang on,the insurance industry has also claims that fraud costs them 3 billion dollars every year(currently the IBC website has lowered their claim down to 2 billion). That’s 5-6 billion every year,an unsubstantiated claim.There’s no denying that fraud does occur but to the extent that the IBC makes it out to be is to fantastical to believe.A forensic report produced by KPMG offers different information on the amount of fraud the industry claims they are victims of.
The June 13,2012 report,Auto Insurance Fraud in Ontario states that fraud in Ontario “ranges between $770 million and $1.6 billion per year.”That’s a wide spectrum but understandable when you read the report,it’s difficult to quantify because perpetrators attempt to avoid detection.What this ultimately admits is they just don’t know.
One day maybe we can all have an adult conversation regarding auto insurance in Ontario but with such obtuse information that’s constantly evangelically promoted by the malpractice media,that discussion isn’t in the near future.
Source: http://thecrashtested.com/brokers-feel-used/
Letter: Lawyers not to blame for auto insurance costs
Barbara Taylor, director of policy at the insurance bureau, suggests that the tracking of lawyer fees will protect consumers while allowing the government to note the impact of lawyer fees on the auto insurance system (see “IBC wants regulation for personal injury lawyers,” Feb. 23). If the insurance industry really wants to control costs, I suggest that they take a hard look at what is expected of accident victims when they announce their intention to advance a claim. Immediately, there is a list of dozens of demands including an employment file, income tax returns, clinical notes and records of doctors, hospital records, drug store records, Facebook records, information on previous accidents, names and addresses of witnesses, identity of insurer, a statutory declaration as to how the accident occurred, and on and on.
This is even before there is a determination on whether the case will cross the verbal threshold. While the insurer gratuitously offers to pay reasonable costs, that does not include the time of the lawyer to pursue the various requested items. Has the insurance bureau ever costed the expense to the insurance company and therefore the system of reviewing the various productions when perhaps no claim has ever been advanced?
If litigation is instituted and the matter proceeds to examinations for discovery, again under direction from the insurance company, the defence lawyer will demand further productions and often these items generate some 30 or 40 letters that have to be prepared by the plaintiff’s lawyer. Assuming all these items are produced, has the insurance bureau computed the costs of first the defence lawyer collecting these items and the adjuster reviewing the same? By this time, the plaintiff’s lawyer will have incurred the cost of medical reports and the defence lawyer will make it clear that while they have to be produced, the insurer will not pay for them. Again, the plaintiff’s lawyer has to lay out that money and, of course, spend the time writing for and receiving medical reports.
If the lawyer for the defence wants a medical report, he will usually choose someone who is totally sympathetic to the defence position and, of course, that is an expense to the insurance company that often runs into the thousands of dollars. Then, based on that report, there is a denial arguing that the case does not meet either the threshold or the $30,000 deductible. At this point, having invested time and money, a plaintiff’s lawyer must decide whether to proceed to trial or throw in the towel.
In reality, if a settlement is achieved, it is usually based on analysis of two or three medical reports amounting to a compromise between the plaintiff’s medical information and the defence doctor’s report. In the end, the piles of paper generated by productions throughout the course of the claim are redundant; however, they have justified the salary of adjusters and defence lawyers, all of which costs the system and affects increases to automobile insurance premiums.
My point is that even if this paper chase is eliminated, the insurance bureau and insurance carriers will still find another way to shortchange proper compensation for innocent accident victims.
Bert Raphael,
Raphael Barristers,
Thornhill, Ont.
Comments
ACORN calls for a hike in disabled Ontarians' housing allowance
Members and volunteers of ACORN Ottawa gathered near the Human Rights Monument Wednesday to shine a light on problems with the Ontario Disability Support Program.
Mike Spencer and struggles on WSIB
Ever been injured at work? Think if you are you’ll be looked after
and made whole? Many injured workers in Ontario are living another
reality after being injured and then entering the Workplace Safety and
Insurance Board – WSIB – system.
According to a website for Ontario injured workers, the “compensation system is meant to protect workers, their families, and the broader public against both the harm and the costs of work-related injuries. This system was created to provide injured workers with prompt and secure benefits that compensate them for as long as they are disabled. Workers’ compensation is supposed to be no-fault, prompt, and non-adversarial. Perhaps most importantly, the workers’
compensation system was designed to ensure that employers collectively pay the costs of workplace injuries, instead of foisting those costs on injured workers, their families, and the rest of us.
If unchecked, recent initiatives by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, will spell the end of workers’ compensation as we have known it. The Board’s management, with the full support of the provincial government, have instituted changes that will limit workers’ entitlement to benefits to a short period after the injury. Instead of a system that compensates workers for injuries, we will be left with system where most workers’ claims are denied and the few workers whose claims are accepted will be forced either back to work or into poverty.”
With me was local activist Mike Spence, himself an injured worker, and we had a discussion on the reality of life for injured workers in the WSIB system:
Comments
On August 30, 1979, I was thrown from, dragged, and crushed, by
three rail cars. Company negligence caused the derailment that hurt 6
men. I am still standing. Barely. Since then I have been subjected to
the most horrendous neglect and tortured by it. I was shattered from
head to toe. Suffering a brain injury and moderate to severe Chronic
Pain ever since. Pain so severe I nearly died of a stroke. Crippled so
bad I cannot walk or stand for very long. Partially paralyzed on the
right side of my back, frozen shoulder, twisted spine, herniated disks,
crushed ankle, and if I walk or stand too long will develop blood clots.
I was not told this and nearly died of blood clots. I was put back to
work totally disabled from employment then slandered when I quit to see
my doctor. For 34 years now I have lived in the utmost fear, depression,
anxiety, and anger, at having my whole life stolen from me. I have
nothing, exist with the charity of food banks and friends. A little over
a year ago WSIB cut off my pension. I think because they say I am dead.
Every crime has been committed against me, every insurance fraud,
including fraud on the Supreme Court of Canada for disobeying a court
order to treat patients in pain. The WSIB is killing its patients
because of this neglect. I am one of its many victims. We only have
government to blame for this mess they have created. The WSIB operates
with a “get out of jail free” card. Two actually. If any Canadian
accepts workers compensation insurance in this country, they are
automatically classed as an “injured worker” and excluded from the
Canada Health Act. You are then left at the mercy of a criminal
insurance company who will cut off the most serious claims and leave the
person in pain and poverty and stress. To make matters worse (can it
get worse than having a criminal insurance company control your medical
care and financial benefits?) you also lose your legal rights. Oh yes
you heard that right. You have no legal rights. Each Workers
Compensation Act in each Province removes an injured workers legal
rights. Maybe it is time healthy Canadians ask why is this removal of
rights taking place? I never gave up my rights. Did you? It appears to
me the WSIB, and other Workers Compensation Boards, are using these Acts
to commit every crime imaginable, including cutting off the most
seriously injured and disabled citizens. Crimes for money. Leaving the
injured workers and their families in absolute misery having to beg off
family and friends to survive. And pain so severe they can’t even sleep.
A life, a family, ruined by deceit, fraud, slander, theft, neglect, and
discrimination. We need a National dialogue on the issue of workers
compensation in this country. Too many are suffering needlessly by being
denied medical care. Too many losing all they worked hard for. Too many
committing suicide or dying from the stresses of being denied medical
care and being forced into poverty. Wake up Canada. For our children’s
sake, our families, friends and neighbours. For all of us.
Source: http://windsorshakeup.com/2013/11/01/oct-25-2013-mike-spencer-and-struggles-on-wsib/
According to a website for Ontario injured workers, the “compensation system is meant to protect workers, their families, and the broader public against both the harm and the costs of work-related injuries. This system was created to provide injured workers with prompt and secure benefits that compensate them for as long as they are disabled. Workers’ compensation is supposed to be no-fault, prompt, and non-adversarial. Perhaps most importantly, the workers’
compensation system was designed to ensure that employers collectively pay the costs of workplace injuries, instead of foisting those costs on injured workers, their families, and the rest of us.
If unchecked, recent initiatives by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, will spell the end of workers’ compensation as we have known it. The Board’s management, with the full support of the provincial government, have instituted changes that will limit workers’ entitlement to benefits to a short period after the injury. Instead of a system that compensates workers for injuries, we will be left with system where most workers’ claims are denied and the few workers whose claims are accepted will be forced either back to work or into poverty.”
With me was local activist Mike Spence, himself an injured worker, and we had a discussion on the reality of life for injured workers in the WSIB system:
Comments
Source: http://windsorshakeup.com/2013/11/01/oct-25-2013-mike-spencer-and-struggles-on-wsib/
Ontario’s workplace safety board tries to muzzle online commenter
Windsor’s self-described defender of injured workers fights peace bond
Mike
Spencer walks out of Ontario Court of Justice, Tuesday, March 17, 2015.
A WSIB security manager is seeking a peace bond against Spencer to stop
him from posting allegedly derogatory and threatening comments online.
(DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)A man who sees himself as a champion of injured workers grew agitated and emotional on the witness stand Wednesday as he tried to stop an arm of the Ontario government from muzzling his online comments.
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board is trying to get a peace bond against Mike Spencer to stop him from posting what it considers threatening comments against employees on Facebook.
But Spencer testified he never intended to threaten harm against anyone. He said he was trying to be a voice for injured people who have been “harassed,” “abused,” financially ruined and even driven to suicide by WSIB employees and practices.
“They can see me there defending them,” said Spencer, 54, originally from Pennsylvania. “It gives them hope. Maybe they won’t go and kill themselves next week.”
The WSIB has been monitoring Spencer’s online activity since 2011.
They take issue with numerous online comments, including “you are going to hell with all your murdering ilk. If I can do anything to expedite that I will.” Another post stated “the time for talking is over. I’ve had enough. I think you all need a lesson and I can’t think of anyone more qualified to give it to you than me.”
Another claimed “the consequences of your actions are long overdue but they are coming scum. They are coming.”
WSIB repeatedly tried to get him to stop posting comments. When sending letters didn’t work, they called Windsor police. Officers met with Spencer and gave him a warning, but the comments didn’t stop.
Sgt. Gary Williams testified he felt there was enough evidence to charge Spencer, but the Crown attorney said a peace bond would be a better way to go.
“There is a level of freedom of speech,” said Williams. “But you can cross that line.”
Spencer, who worked in mechanical and steel fabrication, was hurt Sept. 11, 2008. Under questioning from his lawyer, he didn’t go into the details of the accident, but said his leg was snapped in three places.
After fighting for benefits and having WSIB cut off paying for painkillers, Spencer said he has a $610 monthly pension. He said the constant fighting with WSIB caused him to sink into depression.
“They made me feel like killing myself,” said Spencer. “They made me wish I was dead.”
A friend directed him to some Facebook pages where people in similar circumstances commiserate online. Spencer said that was where he realized how widespread the problem, as he sees it, has become. He claims the stress from dealing with WSIB and receiving inadequate benefits, combined with the pain of injuries, cause people to have heart attacks and strokes. He said some have even killed themselves. Spencer, calling it the “silent genocide,” said he hears from a few people a week contemplating suicide.
He claims his comments are not meant to be threatening or incite violence. Spencer said much of what he posted was meant to get him sued or otherwise hauled into court so he had another public forum to express his views.
“This is all to humiliate and demean them so disabled workers can see and they won’t be afraid,” said Spencer.
He said he doesn’t want to hurt WSIB employees. He wants them in jail.
“I want these people criminally charged, I want them tried, I want them convicted and I want them punished,” said Spencer.
twilhelm@windsorstar.com
MORE:
A two-day hearing began Tuesday with Frank Brunato, WSIB’s corporate safety manager, seeking a peace bond against Windsor’s Mike Spencer to stop him from posting allegedly derogatory and threatening comments.
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/
Charles Shaver: The consequences of Ontario's rules for doctors
Ontario’s government has
chosen to address its $12.5-billion deficit by continuing a four-year
freeze on hospital budgets, and initiating even more extreme measures
for physicians.
Reform done right: In praise of Nova Scotia auto insurance
Nova Scotia boasts one of Canada’s most-effective auto insurance
systems. Premiums are among the lowest in the country, with the average
policy cost sitting around $780 a year. Compare that to Ontario, where
drivers pay about twice that amount.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/
http://thechronicleherald.ca/
Cost of Justice project
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/
Legal pains: The cost of justice includes physical health http://www.
Legal pains: The cost of justice includes physical health
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| Click for larger version. |
The findings are a part of an ongoing five-year national study looking into the social and economic cost of Canada’s justice system.
“We’re concerned by the level of impact on society. No doubt that number is of concern,” says Trevor Farrow, associate law dean at Osgoode Hall Law School and the chair of the CFCJ.
But Farrow, the principal investigator of the cost of justice project, says the numbers did not surprise him.
“Quite frankly, while I’m certainly concerned about this, we expected the numbers would be significant,” he says.
The study also found unresolved legal problems are hitting the public purse outside of the justice sector. Annually, unsolved legal issues result in at least $40 million in additional health care costs, says Farrow.
That’s a conservative estimate based on one additional visit to the doctor each year as a result of legal pains.
“It’s based on annual estimates of what the health care system costs per person and what a modest increase per person amount to,” says Farrow.
He notes the details of these findings will be released in a more fulsome report in the future. As a whole, the ongoing study is also contemplating the mental health impact of unresolved legal problems, says Farrow.
But health care isn’t the only sector feeling the sting of unmet legal needs. A fact sheet published yesterday by the CFCJ says we’re also spending $458 million in additional employment insurance costs every year due to unresolved legal issues and dishing out an extra $248 million in social assistance costs.
What this means is “a well-supported, functioning justice system helps to reduce the knock-on costs of unresolved legal problems,” says Farrow. “The fewer of those problems we have, the more money we’ll be saving elsewhere. It’s not an isolated problem, it’s a collective problem that we need to notice.”
While the lack of access to justice is a well-known problem in Canada, the CFCJ study, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, is hoping to achieve a more sophisticated understanding of what the cost of that really is.
“What we didn’t really know is exactly what that [lack of access to justice] amount to in economic terms and also in related terms in health and wellbeing,” Farrow says. “I think the important thing is, from a user-centered perspective, we start to understand the connections between law and legal problems as part of broader social problems.”
#1 RE: Legal pains: The cost of justice includes physical health — Tammy Kirkwood2015-03-15 09:14
Another study showing the costs to Justice is unaffordable to the average person, thus, costs to our social services is picking up the slack. We’ve seen how the cost of a victim of MVA is laid at the feet of the public purse because the insurance industry passes on their responsibility, The government has cut down the social services to save money in the government purse. At some point when do the people in need become more important, than lining everyone else’s purses? I’m Curious
Source: http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/legalfeeds/2587/legal-pains-the-cost-of-justice-includes-physical-health.html#addcomments
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That being said,the insurance industry is looking for new opportunities to squeeze more money into their pockets with the lawyers being their next target to lobby(pay)the government for legislation that sets financial limits on what personal injury lawyers can earn from representing a client.
Nothing will change until changes occur at Queen's Park first.
This dysfunctional system helps all the hands in the victims pockets grease their own palms.
"IBC's recommendation that injured auto accident victims be provided an easily understandable (consumer friendly) fee-structure outline" Sounds good, but is it more bullshit?
"Nothing will change until changes occur at Queen's Park first." Indeed! Look at the cuts to benefits the gov't as been making to social services themselves.