10:00 a.m.

Tribunal Room - Room 20, 14th floor

Dispute Resolution Group Companies Forum

Minutes of Meeting April 6, 2005

Attendees:

The Dispute Resolution Group – Companies Forum includes representatives from auto insurance companies dealing with disputes before the Commission involving motor vehicle accident claims and Statutory Accident Benefits. It consults with the Dispute Resolution Group of Financial Services Commission of Ontario on issues relating to the dispute resolution system.

Opening
The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on April 6, 2005.

The minutes of last meeting were approved with two minor changes.

There were no matters arising from the previous meeting’s minutes.

Auto Insurance Reform

• DAC changes are still pending – nothing further to report
• Other Regulation Changes/Bulletins – not specific to AB
  • Territorial Rating – FSCO Bulletin A-01/05.
  • Rating Elements – FSCO Bulletin A-02/05.
  • Termination for Non Payment – changes now included in the regulations.
  • Excluded Driver Endorsement changes and update.

Statistics Review

• Mediation applications received are down for fiscal year 2004/2005 compared to 2003/2004 and continue to decrease in the last two quarters.
• Arbitrations received are also up over the last fiscal year.
• Face to Face Mediations – Statistics showed a continued decrease in percentage of face to face mediations. 
• Insurers reinforced their desire to have access to more face to face mediations.

DRS Operational Changes

• David Draper updated the group on the changes discussed at the January meeting and FSCO is continuing to fill some management positions.  There is currently a competition for 4 permanent mediator positions.  There is also a recognized need to increase the number of arbitrators to deal with the increased applications and pending files.

Other Business

• FSCO Website
  • The website redesign is currently ongoing with an expected launch date of late August 2005. 
  • There is already an enhanced search engine but that does not work specifically with the decisions.
  • Suggestions to enhance the website continue to be welcome.
  • The fillable Application for Arbitration is now on the website.
• FSCO Decisions – This area of the website has a high number of ‘hits’.  Access to decisions is currently password protected.  The group agreed this was not necessary.  FSCO will investigate a process to change this.
• Forum Minutes – the group agreed that the meeting minutes can be posted on the website without password protection.
• Loss Transfer – the group requested that FSCO consider updating the Loss Transfer Guideline. The last guideline is from the early 1990’s and does not clearly address what is recoverable today - - specifically with respect to assessments.   Insurers would prefer to have an industry agreement than multiple disputes regarding these issues.
• Chairperson – Mike DelaHaye was elected as chairperson for the next two years.