Insurer ordered to pay ongoing income replacement benefits and a special award for unreasonably withholding payments.
The applicant was injured in a motor vehicle accident in 1997 and received income replacement benefits until the insurer terminated them in November 1997 based on early medical opinions.
The applicant applied for arbitration, claiming ongoing entitlement to income replacement benefits due to cognitive, psychological, and physical impairments.
The arbitrator found that the applicant sustained impairments as a result of the accident and met the tests for both substantial inability within the first 104 weeks and complete inability thereafter.
The arbitrator preferred the evidence of the applicant, his family, and his medical-legal experts over the insurer's experts.
The insurer was ordered to pay ongoing income replacement benefits, interest from the date the applicant's counsel first contacted the insurer in 2001, and a $5,000 special award for unreasonably failing to reinstate benefits after receiving further medical evidence of disability.
OFSCDRSOntario Financial Services Commission - Dispute Resolution ServicesSep 24, 2004