Severely injured shouldn’t be targeted by proposed provincial insurance cuts

If proposed changes to the province’s auto insurance system move forward, they should be implemented in a way that does not impact severely injured individuals, Toronto critical injury lawyer Patrick Brown tells the Toronto Sun.

Brown, a partner with McLeish Orlando LLP, weighs in on the issue in a recent column discussing the Liberal government’s promise to cut car insurance rates by 15 per cent by August. Along with not delivering on the pledge, the government also proposed changes to accident benefits in its spring budget.

Slashing the maximum amount a person can claim for a catastrophic injury from $2 million to $1 million is one part of the proposed plan, reports the Sun.

Rallied against the changes

Brown, who has rallied against the changes, tells the newspaper that traditionally, the province has always ensured people with serious injuries such as quadriplegia and severe traumatic brain injuries are taken care of.

“The government has always indicated previously that if change has to be made it ought not be done on the backs of these people with severe traumatic injuries, but rather on the backs of the people with minor whiplash and soft tissue injuries,” he says in the article.

“If the government is moving forward to make more changes because of the call for premium reductions, I think everyone would agree that should be done with the people with much more minor injuries and not touch those people with quadriplegia and severe traumatic brain injuries,” he tells the Sun.