Bill 103 Won’t Help Accident Victims

April 25, 2017, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

Lawyers, like all professions, is filled with well intentioned, honest and capable people who work hard to ensure their clients get good outcomes, and that they themselves are fairly compensated.  As with all other professions there are a few lawyers that push boundaries of acceptable practice, and some who go beyond the bounds.  The Law Society has rules in place to protect clients from predatory or unfair practices. Lawyers in Ontario would benefit as much as their clients from the strict enforcement of those rules in the cases where unscrupulous lawyers break them.

Bill 103 was introduced to address many of the concerns that the law society had begun to review almost two years ago. The concerns were chiefly that referral fees be reasonable, and that legal ads were representative of the services provided by lawyers and not misleading to the public.

Certain aspects of Bill 103 are thoroughly disheartening though, and the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association has taken serious issue with the 15% cap on legal contingency fees. These fees fall far short of the limits elsewhere in the country, for example in British Columbia where the limit is over 33%. There is ample room to improve contingency fee agreements to ensure clients completely understand what they are paying for, what services are included in the fees, and what costs may not be included. Transparency is crucial, and developing standard, straightforward retainer agreements is part of good business practice.

The chief concern though, is that Bill 103 doesn’t address helping accident victims in Ontario. We know that Ontarians face the highest insurance rates in the country, on some of the safest roads, with some of the lowest accident rates. Many insurance companies seem to be working hard to deny genuine victims compensation. Fraud has become a major concern which has yet to be adequately addressed. The fear is that by capping contingency fees at 15% many lawyers will be driven out of the market, and that hiring a lawyer to pursue accident cases will become an option only for those who have the funds to pay for the services.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

It is important that you review your accident benefit file with one of our experienced personal injury / car accident lawyers to ensure that you obtain access to all your benefits which include, but are limited to, things like physiotherapy, income replacement benefits, vocational retraining and home modifications.