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Trial lawyers point to ROE in opposition to cap     © Thompson’s World Insurance News 2010. No reproduction without written consent.     The reasons behind the minor auto injury award cap in New Brunswick, P.E.I. and Nova Scotia were a hoax because insurer profits were not in danger, the head of the trial lawyers group there claims.     The Atlantic Provinces Trial Lawyers Association president George McAllister told members that from 2003 to 2006 insurers’ after-tax return on equity in each of the three provinces has been above 20%.     He noted the return during the crisis years, before the caps were instituted, showed there was some trouble brewing.     The trial lawyers’ figures show insurers in Nova Scotia — where as reported last week the government is reviewing the cap — had a negative ROE in 1999 and 2000 and broke even in 2001. Then it varied from 8.8% to 27%.     It was negative in New Brunswick from 1998 to 2001 and then varied from 6.8% to 40.3% in the next five years, the association said its data shows.     And in P.E.I. insurers’ ROE ranged from a low of 0.5% in 1999 to 35.5% in 2004.     The Insurance Bureau of Canada’s Atlantic vp Bill Adams noted that Nova Scotians have enjoyed a 26% decline in premium costs as a result of that province’s cap on minor auto injury awards. And rates there have remained stable.     Mr. Adams said the bureau could not comment on the trial lawyers association’s figures because it was unclear from where they came.     More in our February 1, 2010 edition        Thompson’s World Insurance News P.O. Box 1027,  Waterloo, Ontario,  Canada  N2J 4S1 Tel: 519-579-2500 Fax: 519-745-7321 mpub@sympatico.ca THOMPSON’S WORLD INSURANCE NEWS , Canada’s only independent weekly for p&c insurance professionals, has been the industry’s most trusted news source since 1988.