“… Attorney General David Eby announced the move Wednesday, which was accompanied by other reforms that include pre-litigation payments designed to give crash victims money they are entitled to up front without having to hire a lawyer and go to court.
‘Previously if you decided to take any payment from ICBC you couldn’t seek additional settlement money through the courts,’ said Eby. ‘This has led to lengthy and costly court battles’ …” – Reported by Rob Shaw, The Vancouver Sun, 30 January 2020
Minister Eby is either misquoted or mistaken as what is reported here is patently false.
ICBC has been making advance payments for years. The inevitable bureaucratic form accompanying all policy directives, in this case the CL230 Advance Payment Agreement has been on the books for at least 30 years.
In the days of less than one percent per year premium increases (1998 to 2008) advance payments were routinely made.
Cash advances helped injured parties keep the wolf from the door so that they could concentrate on recovery. They also often provided otherwise inaccessible funding for treatment that enhanced return to function.
This was also to the premium payers’ advantage as speedier and more complete recoveries led to lower claim settlements. While plaintiffs often forgot about these payments, on many occasions they remembered them and took a much less aggressive approach to resolution of their claims.
Often times, again to the advantage of both the premium payer and the injured claimant, ICBC would make advance payments in exchange for the expedited production of information needed to evaluate risk and enter settlement discussions as soon as a responsible prognosis was available.
Advance payments were applied firstly to economic loss thus reducing ICBC’s exposure to interest in the event of a judgment. This provision benefited premium payers without penalizing injured parties.
All of the above achieved the Corporation’s objectives because they advanced the interests of both premium payers and injured parties.
It was a thoughtful and effective administrative policy, consistent with the mandate of a Crown Corporation, implemented at a time in ICBC’s history when the leadership provided by the Ministers responsible for ICBC was measured, and objective, and knowledgeable.
To quote Edmund Burke
“Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it”.
Mr. Eby will find real solutions to the problems with the current state of public auto insurance only by examining the laudable portions of ICBC’s history.
Mr. Shaw needs to do his homework.