Province to appeal ruling on reforms
The provincial government will appeal a B.C. Supreme Court decision that struck down ICBC reforms designed to prevent minor injury claims from being litigated in court, instead diverting those claims to an administrative tribunal.
B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson's ruling last week struck down sections of the Civil Resolution Tribunal Act as unconstitutional. His ruling threatened to erase the $390 million in savings projected for the Insurance Corp. of B.C. as a result of moving minor claims from the courts to a civil resolution tribunal.
Attorney General David Eby said Monday that his office would appeal the decision. However, his office has not yet asked the courts for a stay of proceedings, which would allow the civil resolution tribunal to resume adjudicating minor injury claims under $50,000 or disputes around the definition of minor injury.
“The basis for our arguments, and our concerns about the decision, will be laid out in our materials that we file to the courts,” Eby said.
Eby said last week the ruling will not affect the COVID-19-related ICBC rebate heading to drivers this month, or the 20 per cent insurance-rate savings drivers are expecting when the province switches to a no-fault insurance model May 1.
Diverting cases to the civil resolution tribunal was one of the measures included in sweeping ICBC reforms that came into effect April 1, 2019, in an effort to reverse the $2 billion in losses at ICBC between the start of 2018 and the end of 2019.
The Trial Lawyers Association of B.C., which sued the government over the changes, said last week the ruling raises serious legal questions about the NDP's entire no-fault insurance model, because the civil resolution tribunal is a key element of that scheme.
The association, which represents more than 1,500 legal professionals in the province, had argued that the government's creation of a civil resolution tribunal to adjudicate minor accident claims effectively denies claimants the right to a fair trial.