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    • Cap rulings could tempt others to follow suit
        © Thompson’s World Insurance News 2010. No reproduction without written consent.
        Court decisions upholding limits on minor injury damages were an early Christmas present to insurers in Alberta and Nova Scotia — and they might tempt other provinces to ask for the same thing, a prominent law firm surmises.
        But it remains to be seen how trial judges deal with the caps, the insurance practice group at Vancouver-based Clark Wilson warned in a bulletin.
        Last month the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge to that province’s $2,500 limit on pain and suffering awards arising from whiplash-associated disorders and other soft-tissue collision injuries, and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear a challenge of Alberta’s $4,000 limit on such damages.
        The SCOC is unlikely to hear any other constitutional challenges to such caps unless an appeal court in another jurisdiction rules against one, the bulletin said.
        “It will be interesting to see whether other provinces follow suit and enact this kind of legislation, especially now that its enforceability seems almost certain.”
        So far the only other provinces with similar damage award limits are P.E.I. and New Brunswick.
        But the effectiveness of damage caps depends largely on how judges view and use them, the bulletin warned.
        “There is much still to learn about the practicality of the cap legislation, in particular, whether it will be interpreted by courts applying it in such a way that actually results in a meaningful impact on damage awards.”
        More in our January 18, 2010 edition
        
    		 


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