Currently, under our automotive insurance scheme, if you sustain an injury in a motor vehicle accident, and your insurance company denies benefits available to you under your motor vehicle insurance policy, you have the option to arbitrate your denied benefits, or you can take your insurance company to Court to dispute the wrongful denial.

The proposed Bill 171, if enacted, will change all this and deny accident victims the right to sue their insurance company in Court. The government is proposing to deny victims their recourse to the judicial system all in the name of fighting auto insurance fraud. The sad part, however, is that this has nothing to do with fighting fraud, but yet robs accident victims of their access to the judicial system.

Should Bill 171 pass, accident victims who are not at fault for the accident will now have to bring two separate claims, under two separate systems in order to fight for their rights. Although this may be preferred in certain cases, in some situations, the issues are best dealt with in one single claim heard at Court. Accident victims should continue to have the right to choose.