On June 1, 2016, the Province of Ontario enacted significant changes to its Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, as part of its effort to reduce auto insurance costs. With 2017 now well underway, let’s take a look at what the changes mean to motor vehicle accident claims, and how a personal injury lawyer at Nanda and Associate can help.
The province’s new regulations significantly limit the benefits available to accident victims. Under the new rules, benefits for non-catastrophic injuries were reduced from $50,000 for medical and rehabilitation care and $36,000 for attendant care to a combined total of combined $65,000. This represents a reduction of available benefits by $21,000.
Victims with severe injuries have been more acutely impacted by the cuts. Not only do the changes significantly narrow the definition of catastrophic impairment, the benefits available to victims who qualify as catastrophically injured have been slashed by 50 per cent. Prior to June 1, catastrophic impairment entitled the injury victim to up to $1-million in medical and rehabilitative benefits, and $1-million in attendant care benefits; today those same accident victims have access to $1-million in combined medical, rehabilitative, and attendant care benefits. Again, that 50 per cent cut represents the shockingly large reduction of available benefits by $1-million!
If the accident was caused by another motorist, an experienced personal injury lawyer can help the victim seek compensation through the civil courts. However, the money available will be limited by the other party’s insurance coverage.
While $1-million may sound like reasonable compensation for a serious injury, the cost of care for severely injured victims can be exorbitant. In an editorial for the Globe and Mail, an Ontario personal injury lawyer explained that for a person requiring 24-hour care, “the new limit would be completely exhausted in about 14 years at the current artificial maximum monthly limit for attendant care of $6,000 – without even considering any medical or rehabilitation services required.”
These new limits mean that, in order to secure funds that may be necessary for appropriate care where these limits are not sufficient, people will have to rely on lawsuits to try and recover enough money to secure their healthcare needs. Having an experienced personal injury lawyer, like the lawyers at Nanda & Associate Lawyers, who can help with this type of claim has now become more urgent than ever before.
The new rules have already begun to affect injury victims in Ontario. In October, the CBC reported on the case of 34-year-old Adam Bari, who broke his right arm, leg, and hand and suffered brain trauma and internal organ damage in a motorcycle crash in June. Had the crash occurred a day earlier, Bari would have been eligible for as much as $2M in compensation; instead, he received just $86,000.
“We’ll be lucky if this money lasts us to Christmas time,” Adam’s wife Courtney Bari told the CBC. “There’s going to be a personal support worker needed and physiotherapy. It’s not going to be cheap.”
The Government of Ontario said in a statement that changes to the auto insurance system were made “to balance the needs of injured claimants, lowering costs for Ontario’s almost 10 million drivers.” Indeed, this has been a long-standing commitment of the province’s Liberal administration. In 2013, Premiere Wynne promised a 15 per cent reduction in auto insurance premiums by August 2015. As of this month, rates have only fallen approximately 8 per cent.
If you have suffered an injury in a motor vehicle accident, contact a personal injury lawyer at Nanda & Associate today to discuss your options. Our team can explain your next steps forward and help you on your road to recovery.
