FACT: No-fault insurance is a system in which those injured in a car accident receive compensation and benefits from their own insurance company, regardless of fault. It is designed to reduce the delays of an adversarial legal (or “tort”) system and provide treatment and benefits to injured victims as quickly as possible.
Most provinces in Canada have some form of no-fault accident benefits that are paid to all accident victims. The difference is the degree to which tort (the right to sue) or no-fault (access to accident benefits) is emphasized. For example, Quebec has a pure no-fault system that eliminates the right to sue, but provides substantial accident benefits. Ontario has a “hybrid” system, which blends no-fault and tort.
No-fault insurance does not mean that drivers are never at fault in accidents. There are still fault-based rules of the road, which are enforced by police. If you are at-fault in an accident, your insurance premiums will be affected and, depending on the nature of the accident, you may be charged with an offence. These offences are governed by either provincial motor vehicle legislation, or federal legislation, such as the Criminal Code of Canada.
There is no evidence that no-fault insurance leads to increased numbers of accidents or fatalities/injuries. While some argue that a tort system provides a deterrent against poor driving behaviour, there is no correlation between the type of insurance system and the road safety record of the jurisdiction. Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Manitoba all have either pure or hybrid no-fault insurance systems. Ontario has one of the best road safety records in North America. British Columbia, Alberta and the Atlantic provinces have tort-based systems. BC has consistently had one of the highest incidences of highway injuries and fatalities of any province in Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment