Soundstone Law

Sometimes buying insurance just buys you the right to sue them.

Pizza Cake Comic The more you know!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/motocross-crash-benefits-supreme-court-1.6876107

A motocross race paralyzed him. His insurance company wants Supreme Court to decide if he gets benefits | CBC News Michael Beaudin was paralyzed in 2017 and has since been fighting for what his lawyer says could be up to $1 million in benefits. On Thursday, he's set to find out if the Supreme Court of Canada will allow Travelers Canada to make its case for not paying Beaudin.

Aviva is playing hardball, apparently. When these two elderly ladies in two separate cases are injured, Aviva cranks up the legal costs. One wins her case for about $20,000, and gets awarded legal costs worth more than 10 times as much as her damages, which the judge says is the consequences of Aviva "playing hardball".

The other falls outside a retirement home. Her damages were agreed to be $75,000. She loses her case, but the judge says, "Aviva with its approach is at risk of allegations of playing hardball." Consequently, he awards no costs to the company. Aviva has appealed - they want to extract costs. The injured lady is now 84 years old.

Aviva is based in London, pays a 7.99% dividend, and in 2019 made the equivalent net profits of approximately $4,500,000,000 in Canadian dollars.

https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2018/2018onsc368/2018onsc368.html

https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2019/2019onsc7498/2019onsc7498.html

CanLII - 2018 ONSC 368 (CanLII)                                                                                                  COURT FILE NO.: CV-11-423627

More ICBC. How to make sure injured people get screwed: pre-payments on settlements, but only if you DON'T get a lawyer.

Vaughn Palmer: Eby has no plans to privatize ICBC, and reforms do little to cut costs OPINION: It is sobering to see the former head of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association discouraging accident victims from consulting a lawyer before entering into settlement talks with the deep-poc…

Your insurance premiums are going up. Maybe you've heard about this. It's been in the media quite a bit.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), which is basically a cartel, would like you to believe that insurance companies are losing money (but are they?) because claims have increased (but have they?). We're going to raise rates, they say, which will kill you politically, Mr. Premier, unless you cap payouts.

Cap payouts? Terrible solution. Look, imagine a hard working Albertan heading home from a construction job gets t-boned by somebody texting. He's sore, can't sleep, jaw hurts so much he can't eat, but he suffers through work to make sure his kids have a house to live in. He's paid loads in premiums over the years. Should there be a law that he cannot get fair compensation? (I mean, otherwise the person texting might have to pay higher premiums, right?😒)

Oh, by the way, check out how poor insurance companies are: Intact made (net!) 187 million dollars in one QUARTER. Aviva made 558 million! (Type in your insurance company in Google Finance see how poor THEY are.) Do they really need to raise premiums 30%? How about we go back to capping their premiums.

The reminds me of something mortgage lenders did back during the Lougheed years. They said they'd pull out of Alberta if the government didn't make them favourable (to them) mortgage legislation. Lougheed effectively gave them the finger and said go ahead, and ATB will be here giving out fair mortgages. Alberta won that one.

Is IBC's campaign working? Do Albertans believe them?
Do Albertans support insurance companies more than they support themselves?

We could sure use a leader who isn't afraid to stand up to wealthy bullies right now. I hope we have one.

Advocacy group raises concerns over Alberta auto insurance rate hikes A group of hundreds of Albertans ranging from lawyers to doctors to concerned citizens is raising concerns over auto insurance rate hikes.Fair Alberta formed as a counter-voice to the insurance ind…