Each day we’re seeing more & more impacts on the claims process & findings due to the Ontario Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule change effective September 2010.
One of the implications for direct writers, agents & brokers is the additional optional benefits. Each company has developed a strategy on how to offer these benefits & how to track a client’s acceptance or decline of these benefits. The implications of how this is documented can have legal consequences, as demonstrated in the case Zefferino V. Monnex. The reason that this case ultimately failed is because the client did not prove that she would have purchased these benefits, had they been adequately explained to her.
Thomson Rogers did a write-up on this case in their March issue of The Accident Benefits Reporter.
So, brokers, insurers & direct writers, continue to dot your i’s and cross your t’s!