In November 2003 the Nova Scotia legislature passed the Automobile Insurance Reform Act or as I refer to it, the Auto Insurance Industry Profit Protection Plan! The law was introduced to protect the profits of the insurance industry. The law strips away the rights of innocent accident victims and places a limit (the cap) on the compensation car accident victims can recover for their injuries.

Now any victim who suffers a "minor injury" in a car accident is limited to a maximum of $2,500.00 dollars in compensation for their pain and suffering.

The Automobile Insurance Reform Act law defines a minor injury as follows:

(a) "minor injury" means a personal injury that:

(i) does not result in a permanent serious disfigurement,

(ii) does not result in a permanent serious impairment of an important bodily function caused by a continuing injury which is physical in nature, and

(iii) resolves within twelve months following the accident;

(b) "serious impairment" means an impairment that causes substantial interference with a person's ability to perform their usual daily activities or their regular employment.

Now you and I know what resolves means; it means you are better! If you aren't better in one year your injury has not "resolved" and you are entitled to more than $2500.00 in compensation.

But the government didn't see it that way. As if things weren't complicated enough, in an effort to further limit the ability of innocent car accident victims to get compensation for their injuries, and in an effort to increase insurance company profits, the government created regulations "defining" what the word "resolves" means.

"Resolves" means

...does not cause or ceases to cause a serious impairment of an important bodily function which results from a continuing injury of a physical nature to produce substantial interference with the person's ability to perform their usual daily activities or their regular employment...

The government also decided to define what substantial interference with your work or household activities means.

"Substantial interference" means:

...with respect to a person's ability to perform their regular employment, that the person is unable to perform, after reasonable accommodation by the person or the person's employer for the personal injury and reasonable efforts by the injured person to adjust to the accommodation, the essential elements of the activities required by the person's pre-accident employment;

Finally, the government decided that to actually define what your usual activities are!

"Usual daily activities" means:

...the essential elements of the activities that are necessary for the person's provision of their own care and are important to people who are similarly situated considering, among other things, the injured person's age.

The definition of a "minor injury" in the Automobile Insurance Reform Act and the regulations are not a shining example of clarity in drafting.

As you can see, the definition is contradictory and confusing (even to some lawyers).

Given the complex legal issues involved, I believe it is critical to the success of your car accident injury claim, that you have advice from a personal injury lawyer experienced in the intricacies of the Automobile Insurance Reform Act. I had the privilege of being invited to lecture at the Canadian Bar Association's annual Professional Development conference about the Automobile Insurance Reform Act and strategies about how to properly represent injured victims under this complicated (and unfair) legislation.