Priority Disputes, Loss Transfer > Private Arbitrations Between Insurers to be Publicly Recorded by FSCO

As part of the ongoing changes to the auto insurance regime in Ontario, starting in September, 2010, FSCO (Financial Services Commission of Ontario) is requiring that insurers send their private arbitration decisions to FSCO, who will then post them to a publicly available database of FSCO decisions.

The FSCO bulletin in October, 2010 setting out the procedure is found here.

This is an important change to a remaining significant aspect of auto insurance law, which is long overdue.

Before the September, 2010 changes, absent a central database to record decisions regarding these inter-company disputes, no doubt there were numerous issues litigated and re-litigated, among different insurers, on the basis that there was no precedent to provide guidance to the disputing parties.  Publicizing these decisions should help to provide clarify and lower costs among insurers.

Gregory Chang
Toronto Insurance Lawyer