Lorne Slotnick

The applicant, injured in a motor vehicle accident, sought an order requiring the insurer to produce any surveillance evidence it had obtained, regardless of whether the insurer intended to rely on it at the hearing.

The arbitrator dismissed the request, holding that under Rule 40 of the Dispute Resolution Practice Code, an insurer's obligation to produce surveillance evidence only arises if it intends to rely on it at the hearing.

The arbitrator followed the appellate decision in Puljic, finding that the specific rule regarding surveillance takes precedence over the general rule allowing an arbitrator to order production of relevant documents.

The applicant was injured in a motor vehicle accident and applied for statutory accident benefits.

After failing to resolve disputes through mediation, he applied for arbitration.

The applicant failed to comply with a prior order to produce documents and sign authorizations.

The arbitrator removed the applicant's former representative from the record at his request and ordered the arbitration stayed until the applicant complied with the production order.

The applicant applied for statutory accident benefits following a motor vehicle accident.

The applicant failed to appear at the arbitration hearing.

The arbitrator stayed the proceeding to allow the applicant time to provide an explanation, but no correspondence was received and mail sent to the applicant's last known address was returned.

The application was dismissed.

The applicant's application for statutory accident benefits was previously dismissed after the applicant and his counsel failed to attend the hearing.

The insurer sought expenses of $6,723.58.

The arbitrator reduced the counsel hours claimed from 55 to 40 and adjusted the hourly rate to comply with the Legal Aid Services Act.

The arbitrator ordered the applicant to pay $3,588.72 in expenses to the insurer.

The arbitrator declined to order the applicant's counsel to pay any portion of the expenses personally under s. 282 of the Insurance Act, finding that the counsel did not cause unnecessary expenses or delays, and the fault lay with the client.

The applicant, who was injured in a motor vehicle accident, applied for statutory accident benefits and subsequently for arbitration.

He failed to appear at the hearing, having sent a letter requesting an adjournment due to alleged family emergencies, but subsequently lost contact with his counsel and the Commission.

The arbitrator refused to grant the adjournment immediately but declined the insurer's request to dismiss the application outright.

Instead, the arbitrator stayed the proceeding and ordered the applicant to provide justification for his absence and pay $750 in expenses to the insurer by a specified date, failing which the application would be dismissed.

The applicant failed to attend a peremptory preliminary issues hearing regarding his claim for statutory accident benefits.

His counsel requested an adjournment, stating the applicant was in the Philippines, but provided no evidence or instructions.

The arbitrator dismissed the application due to the applicant's failure to meet his onus of establishing a basis for his claim.

The arbitrator also ordered expenses payable to the insurer and allowed submissions on whether the applicant's counsel should be personally liable for a portion of the costs.

The insurer brought a motion to stay the arbitration proceeding until the applicant attended three insurer examinations under section 42 of the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule.

The applicant had refused to attend the examinations, arguing they were solely to determine if his impairment was catastrophic, which was not an issue in the arbitration.

The arbitrator found that two of the examinations were primarily for determining catastrophic impairment and were not proper under section 42.

However, the arbitrator ordered the applicant to attend the third examination with a neurologist, as it was reasonably necessary to assess the ongoing claim for income replacement benefits.

The motion was allowed in part, but the request to stay the arbitration was denied.

The applicant was injured in a motor vehicle accident and received income replacement benefits until they were terminated by the insurer following an insurer examination.

More than three years later, after the applicant underwent knee and hip replacement surgeries and applied for arbitration, the insurer requested a further examination by the same doctor.

The applicant refused to attend.

The arbitrator held that the applicant was not precluded from proceeding to arbitration, finding that the requested examination did not meet the requirements of section 42 of the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule.

The arbitrator concluded that the primary purpose of the examination was to prepare for the upcoming arbitration hearing rather than to determine entitlement to a benefit.

The applicant was struck by an uninsured vehicle while walking across a street.

She applied for statutory accident benefits from Wawanesa, which insured the driver of the vehicle on another policy.

Wawanesa returned the application, claiming it was not an insurer because the driver had cancelled her liability coverage days before the accident.

The arbitrator held that Wawanesa, having initially advised the applicant's counsel that the driver was insured, created a sufficient nexus to be considered an insurer.

As the first insurer to receive the application, Wawanesa was required under O. Reg. 283/95 to respond to the application and pay benefits pending any priority dispute.

The insurer brought a motion to compel the insured to attend an in-person vocational assessment examination and to stay the arbitration hearing until she complied.

The insurer had previously obtained a paper review report from its vocational expert, who stated his conclusions were reliable and comprehensive.

The arbitrator found that the insurer's request, made more than four years after benefits were terminated and shortly before the hearing, was for hearing preparation rather than ongoing claims assessment.

The arbitrator concluded the examination was not reasonably necessary under section 42 of the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule and allowed the arbitration to proceed.