Connect with us
[the_ad id="89560"]

Automotive

B.C. limits court experts in auto insurance to spur early settlements, savings

Published

5 minute read

VICTORIA — The B.C. government is going to try and contain financial losses at its Crown-owned auto insurance corporation by reducing the use of experts in accident lawsuits.

The government has amended the rules for civil cases in the B.C. Supreme Court to limit the number of experts and the reports they write in lawsuits involving the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, Attorney General David Eby said Monday .

Accident injury claims have increased 43 per cent in the past five years and the use of experts has contributed to a 20 per cent rise in the corporation’s injury settlements in the past year, Eby told a news conference.

The changes are designed to trim the excesses in the system, he added.

“It doesn’t advance any interest to have six-plus adversarial experts on a claim. It doesn’t advance any interest to have a $50,000 expense to resolve a $100,000 claim.”

Eby, who is also the minister in charge of the Crown corporation, said the agency is on track for a year-end loss of $1.18 billion, compounding the blow of last year’s $1.3 billion deficit. He described the financial situation left by the former Liberal government at ICBC as a “dumpster fire” last year.

Last week he said the financial situation at the public auto insurer is critical and getting worse, with losses of $860 million in the first nine months of this fiscal year.

The Trial Lawyers Association of B.C. said it supports measures to make the civil justice system fairer, faster and cheaper, but it criticized the government for acting unilaterally.

“Passing such consequential changes to our system of civil justice with no legislative debate is undemocratic,” the association said in a statement. “Time and again this government seems to favour ICBC’s financial interests over the legal rights of British Columbians, and this rush to pass restrictions on how victims of negligence must prove their cases at law is the most recent illustration of making car accident victims pay for reckless driving.”

Eby said he expects there will be legal challenges, but added the changes bring B.C. into line with other provinces that limit experts in injury claim cases from motor vehicle accidents. Australia and the United Kingdom have much tougher restrictions on the use of experts and expert reports, he said.

“We believe the balance we have struck between unlimited adversarial experts under the current system and the no adversarial expert rules of other jurisdictions will reduce the costs and delays associated with using duelling experts while preserving a party’s ability to get evidence in front of a court,” Eby said.

The changes mean the parties in injury claims cases are limited to the use of one expert and one report for claims of less than $100,000 and up to three experts and three reports for all other claims.

Eby said the courts will also be able to permit more court-appointed or joint experts at its discretion.

The changes start immediately on motor vehicle accident claims, he said. The government is also considering making the injury expert changes apply to all personal injury claims by Feb. 1, 2020.

“The challenge with the issue, as all issues on this file, is finding the right balance between protecting the interests of British Columbians injured in motor vehicle accidents and finding ways to make the current system work better,” Eby said.

The B.C. Utilities Commission approved ICBC’s request in January to allow for an interim basic auto insurance rate increase of 6.3 per cent.

A number of other cost-saving reforms are also being implemented starting April 1, including higher fines for repeat offenders and a payout limit of $5,500 for minor soft-tissue injuries.

 

 

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

Storytelling is in our DNA. We provide credible, compelling multimedia storytelling and services in English and French to help captivate your digital, broadcast and print audiences. As Canada’s national news agency for 100 years, we give Canadians an unbiased news source, driven by truth, accuracy and timeliness.

Follow Author

Automotive

Trudeau’s electric vehicle mandate could cause Canada’s power grid to collapse, analysis shows

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Not only would the need to generate more electric power skyrocket, but prices and taxes would soar for consumers, a Fraser Institute study found.

A noted fiscally conservative think tank warned that a proposed federal mandate from the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ban the sale of new gasoline/diesel-only powered cars after 2035 and allow electric-only sales is an unrealistic fantasy that would cause massive chaos by threatening to collapse the nation’s power grids.

“Requiring all new vehicle sales in Canada to be electric in just 11 years means the provinces need to substantially increase their power generation capabilities, and adding the equivalent of 10 new mega-dams or 13 new gas plants in such a short timeline isn’t realistic or feasible,” said G. Cornelis van Kooten, a Fraser Institute senior fellow and author of “Failure to Charge: A Critical Look at Canada’s EV Policy.”

“Canadians need to know just how much additional electricity is going to be required in order to meet Ottawa’s electric vehicle mandate, because its impact on the provinces — and taxpayers and rate payers — will be significant.”

Van Kooten’s in-depth analysis of the impending electric vehicle (EV) mandate was released March 14 and estimates that to meet the 2035 target national electric generation would need to go up some 15.3% in only 11 years, which is a monumental task.

This would mean building no less than 10 new mega hydro dams nationwide, or at least 13 new large natural gas plants, according to Van Kooten. For those pushing so-called “green” power, that would mean some 5,000 new wind turbines, which all must still be backed up by natural gas peaker plants because of their unreliability when the wind is not blowing.

Given the length of time it takes to build a natural gas plant due to red tape, costs, and other factors, van Kooten observed that “the major obstacle relates to the likelihood of constructing sufficient power generating capacity to meet the anticipated demand EVs would impose on electricity grids.”

“The real-world situation is not as easy as merely replacing current ICE vehicles with EVs, and there are many obstacles to be overcome on the path of electrifying the personal vehicle fleets within Canada,” he said.

“The type of electricity that goes into the grid would also be a big consideration when switching over to EVs, as jurisdictions will need to increase their electricity production capabilities with green sources that meet the additional hourly load requirements and can be employed quickly to balance intermittent renewable energy sources.”

Van Kooten’s study looks at how much extra electricity will be required in all of Canada’s biggest provinces, Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec to meet the 2035 EV mandate.

Trudeau plans to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars after 2035. The EU (European Union) also has an EV mandate in place for the same year.

Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced just before Christmas the “Electric Vehicle Availability Standard.” This is a plan that will mandate that all new cars and trucks by 2035 be electric, which would in effect ban the sale of new gasoline- or diesel-only powered vehicles after that year.

The reality is that electric cars cost thousands more to make and buy, are not suited to Canada’s cold climate, offer poor range and long charging times (especially in cold weather), and have batteries that take tremendous resources to make and are hard to recycle.

Just over a week ago, LifeSiteNews reported that a 2022 study found that electric vehicles pollute at a rate far higher than their gasoline or diesel-powered counterparts.

Not all Canadian provinces are on board Trudeau’s EV dictate

In January, LifeSiteNews reported that Alberta’s Minister of Energy criticized the federally funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for publishing a report stating that electric cars are better able to handle cold weather than gas-powered ones, all at the same time an extreme cold snap gripped much of western Canada and nearly caused Alberta’s power grid to collapse due to its increased reliance on so-called renewable energy.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has promised that she intends to fight with “everything” at her disposal what she called an “unconstitutional” new federal government EV mandate as well as a net-zero power generation, which if implemented would lead to guaranteed power outages.

She noted that when it comes to Trudeau’s EV mandate, “Ottawa is trying to force increased demands on the electricity grid while simultaneously weakening Alberta’s and other provinces’ grids through their federal electricity regulations.”

Trudeau’s EV mandates have also been called out by the automotive industry in Canada. The Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association said in response to the new EV mandate that forcing people to buy EVs will “disproportionately impact households living in rural and northern communities that may have lower access to public charging infrastructure.”

 

Continue Reading

Automotive

High-tech cars are secretly spying on drivers, resulting in insurance rejections: NYT report

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Claire Chretien

Many Americans’ driving habits are monitored without their knowledge or consent, and their driving data is being used to make decisions about insurance coverage and rates.

A lawsuit accuses General Motors of spying on a Florida man’s driving habits via his 2021 Cadillac XT6, resulting in his rejection by seven auto insurance companies.

The man, Romeo Chicco, is also suing LexisNexis, the company that shared his data with the insurance companies.

The New York Times reported:

Modern cars have been called “smartphones with wheels,” because they are connected to the internet and packed with sensors and cameras. According to the complaint, an agent at Liberty Mutual told Mr. Chicco that he had been rejected because of information in his “LexisNexis report.” LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a data broker, has traditionally kept tabs for insurers on drivers’ moving violations, prior insurance coverage and accidents.

When Mr. Chicco requested his LexisNexis file, it contained details about 258 trips he had taken in his Cadillac over the past six months. His file included the distance he had driven, when the trips started and ended, and an accounting of any speeding and hard braking or accelerating. The data had been provided by General Motors — the manufacturer of his Cadillac.

Chicco had downloaded the MyCadillac app, and “was eventually told that his data had been sent via OnStar — G.M.’s connected services company, which is also named in the suit — and that he had enrolled in OnStar’s Smart Driver program, a feature for getting driver feedback and digital badges for good driving.”

Another New York Times report explored the extent to which car manufacturers and insurance companies are able to access data about drivers: a man whose insurance rates increased by 21 percent learned that LexisNexis had “more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the [Chevrolet] Bolt over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn’t have is where they had driven the car.

As cars become increasingly high-tech, freedom and civil liberties advocates like Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky have warned that such features may become weaponized. For example, a 2021 federal law mandates that by 2026 new cars have a “kill switch” by which they be disabled from afar – supposedly an anti-drunk driving measure. As LifeSiteNews has reported, manufacturers must put a system in cars that can “passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identity whether that driver may be impaired” and can stop or limit “motor vehicle operation” if “impairment is detected.”

Continue Reading

Trending

X