Counsel Forum Minutes of Meeting - March 28, 2003

Approval of Minutes

• The minutes of the meeting held January 31, 2003, were approved.

Automobile Insurance Reform Update

• Willie Handler once again addressed the Forum and provided a brief update with respect to the status of the changes to the Insurance Act respecting automobile insurance.
  
• He advised that the Ministry of Finance released draft regulations in late February, 2003.
  
• He advised that the government committee working on the regulations had received about 75 written submissions and all of these submissions had been carefully reviewed.
  
• Some of the proposed automobile insurance changes have proved to be contentious.
  
• Some of the contentious items dealt with the DAC system, paralegal representation and anti-fraud measures.
  
• The government is working hard to finalize the regulations as soon as possible.

Mediation

• Over the past year there has been an increase of about 10% in the number of applications for mediation.
  
• Approximately 9% of all mediations are held face-to-face.
  
• There was a discussion about FSCO's present policy of notifying mediation applicants that their application for mediation is too late (missed a limitation period), within the context of certain court decisions, particularly Smith v. Co-operators Insurance.
  
• FSCO assessing implications.
  

FSCO has prepared draft written criteria, to be used by the mediation group, in order to assist in a determination of which mediations should be held on a face-to-face basis and which should be held by telephone conference call.

Arbitration

• The number of applications was down slightly over the third quarter, but up slightly over the past year.
  
• Most arbitration decisions (87%) are issued within 85 days of the completion of the hearing.

Appeals

• There are approximately 40-45 appeals launched each year.
  
• There are still 7 appeal decisions pending that would be considered "older"
  
• The appeals unit continues to work to try to reduce the number of older decisions in the system.

Judicial Review

• No new applications for judicial review have been filed since the last meeting.

Operational Update

• FSCO has a target date for the implementation of its proposed system that will allow the
  E-filing of Mediation and Arbitration Applications.
  
• The target date is December 31, 2003.
  
• "Smart forms" are expected to be available soon on the FSCO web site.
  
• These smart forms will allow the user to complete Applications for Mediation and Arbitration using "Fillable" forms and then print the completed form on their own computer.
  
• It was pointed out however that it will not be possible to "Save" the completed forms on the computer.
  
• There will be a test of the smart forms on April 2, 2003.

Dispute Resolution Practice Code Update

• The present practice code is now about two years old.
  
• Once the proposed automobile insurance reforms are passed into law the dispute resolution group is going to review the practice code to determine what changes need to be made.

Outreach Program

• FSCO is looking at the possibility of having an educational program in Kingston, Ontario around October, 2003.
  
• Hamilton and Windsor have also expressed interest in having a program put on and this will be considered as well.