Ontario SABS Insurers Do Not Have To Justify EUO Reason

The Ontario Court of Appeal, in Aviva Insurance Company of Canada v. McKeown, 2017 ONCA 563 (CanLII) determined an insurer is not required to provide a "justification" to compel an applicant for benefits to attend an examination under oath pursuant to subsection 33(2) of the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule.

The Court determined by requiring insurers to justify their exercise of conducting an EUO, the original judge drew "unsupported inferences, employed extraneous considerations, and failed to consider the entire legislative context of [the subsection]."  The Court was also critical of the applications Judge for concluding (absent an evidentiary record) that EUOs would increase the cost of claims. The Court looked at the regime that the Legislature had set up for accident benefits and noted (paragraph 38):