It should be called the “Let’s Help Auto Insurers and Drunk and Negligent Drivers At The expense of Victims Act”:
Last I checked ( I have been a lawyer for quite some time), courts allow evidence that is relevant and material to a case. But our government decided that such basic justice should not apply in cases of negligence against impaired drivers. If you sue for $100,000 or less, you are now limited to calling ONE EXPERT to prove your case against the drunk that caused you serious injuries.
You cannot call your family doctor, your physiotherapist, your psychologist and your accountant to calculate your lost wages and your accident reconstruction engineer –experts you would normally use to prove that the drunk driver caused the accident, You now have to PICK 1 expert and pretend none of the other evidence exists so as to allow insurers to pay peanuts and force (what is supposed to be an independent) judiciary to do the same.
This way, the insurance company forces the judge to ignore key evidence so that you cannot prove your case.
Any other area of law: family, criminal, estate law, etc. this would NEVER happen. But in personal injury litigation, accident victims are treated worse than 2nd class citizens. Here, they are treated worse than impaired drivers that made them victims. How does any of this “enhance” care and affordability???
Why is there not public outrage?
If you were to design the most one-sided undemocratic, unjust way of dealing with insurance, this would be it.
I highly doubt this will withstand Charter scrutiny but who exactly does the government care about? Clearly not the victim. Impaired drivers and those that insure them seem to control things these days.
