One of the noted injury lawyers in New Brunswick states that they need to abandon the $2,500 injury cap on the pain & suffering awards in auto insurance and instead, adopt a much better system.
George McAllister, a Fredericton-based lawyer with over 35 years of practice states that there are much better models when compared to the cap & threshold model, where a group of accident victims have to carry the burden of lower auto insurance rates.
The New Brunswick government had introduced legislation in July 2003 that capped the compensation awarded for accident victims for pain and suffering when they suffered minor injuries. The legislation stated that accident victims will only be entitled to $2,500 in case of minor injuries.
This legislation was brought in at a time when auto insurance rates began soaring and the insurance sector was blaming large PIP claims for the increase in rates.
According to the legislation, all minor injuries had been covered by the cap and in order to be exempted, it has to be proven that injuries were permanent, impaired bodily functions, or caused serious impairment to someone.
This change proved to be controversial, as there were many who claimed that the definition was very broad as it left even the seriously injured victims with just a payout of $2,500 for pain and suffering.
An auto insurance working group was named by Justice Minister Marie-Claude Blais, in the month of January. This group would review the existing cap and the way injuries are defined. While making the announcement, she stated that the goal was to ensure that the entire system offers victims fair treatment and also to ensure that auto insurance is accessible for new policyholders in New Brunswick.
Public consultations had been held earlier this summer where the Shediac lawyer Michel Leger had chaired the Auto Insurance Working Group. People who were injured in auto collisions were heard during the meetings. Lawyers as well as other interested parties along with the working group will meet sometime later this month in order to discuss all the information that had been collected, based on which recommendations would be made.
Leger stated that they had managed to get sufficient feedback from people and it had proved to be a valuable exercise.
He is also hopeful of submitting the report to the government by early fall. The report would contain recommendations on changes to the cap, definitions of injuries – including the ones that fall under the cap and those that do not.
