Council Forum Minutes of Meeting - January 31, 2003

Council Forum Minutes of Meeting - January 31, 2003Council Forum Minutes of Meeting - January 31, 2003

Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the meeting held November 29, 2002, were approved.

Automobile Insurance Reform Update

• The omnibus bill that contains the Automobile Insurance changes was passed in the Ontario Legislature on December 9, 2002.
  
  
• The changes affecting the SABS have not taken effect, but the legislative changes having to do with MVAC and winding up orders took effect on December 9, 2002, upon Royal Assent.
  
  
• Through a regulation change, mandatory pre-inspection was eliminated on December 20, 2002 (with the filing of O.Reg. 391/02).
  
  
• The government continues to work on two sets of Regulations, one for SABS changes and one for non-SABS changes.
  
  
• It is not known when the Regulations will be finalized or when they will come into force.
  
  
• At FSCO, an Automobile Insurance Reform Implementation Committee has been established.
  
  
• This committee has met on a few occasions.
  
  
• The Superintendent of Insurance is the Chair of this committee.
  
  
• The committee has established a series of working groups to discuss various implementation issues.
  
  
• The Auto Reforms Implementation Steering Committee consists of representatives from FSCO, health care providers, the DAC Committee, the legal profession and the insurance industry.
  
  
• A member commented that it would appear that this steering committee has no real representation from the Ontario bar, nor representation from the Dispute Resolution Services Counsel Forum.
  
  
• Margaret Orlander indicated that she will bring to the attention of the steering committee this concern.

Mediation

• Shonna Neil advised that overall, Mediation applications are up- they are at an all time high.

Arbitration

• David Braund advised that Arbitration applications are up slightly in 2002.
  
  
• The age of outstanding arbitration decisions continues to fall- most arbitration decisions are now rendered within 85 days of the end of the hearing.
  
  
• Arbitrator staff changes were noted.

Appeals and Judicial Review

• The number of appeals remained quite small in relation to the number of arbitration applications.
  
  
• Slightly less than 25% of arbitration decisions are appealed.
  
  
• The number of "old" decisions pending continues to decline.

D.R.S. Operational Changes

• Barbara Dudzinski advised that progress continues on the implementation of "smart forms".
  
  
• A testing of these forms is expected to be carried out in a matter of weeks.
  
  
• The Commission will be seeking some representatives to test the new forms and provide comments.
  
  
• With respect to E-filing, implementation of the first phase is targetted for December 2003.

Other Business

• One member brought to the attention of the forum that two insurance companies are refusing to conduct mediations by telephone conference call with his firm and are insisting that all mediations be done face to face.
  
  
• There was some discussion of this issue but no consensus as to whether or not this was problematic or should be looked into further.
  
  
• There was discussion about whether or not "settlement days" at FSCO should be resurrected.
  
  
• These were tried a couple of years ago, however they were discontinued because they were not well utilized.
  
  
• While there was no strong consensus either way, the members seemed to be of the view that there were already built into the arbitration system several settlement discussion windows and that for various logistical and timing reasons dedicated settlement days might not be well utilized.
  
  
• David Braund advised that FSCO is considering a pilot project in London, Ontario whereby some pre-hearings would be conducted in London- at the present time face-to-face pre-hearings are only done in Toronto.

Next Meeting

• The next meeting of Counsel Forum will take place on March 28, 2003