Pre-Judgment Interest In The Court Of Appeal

The Ontario Court of Appeal decisions of Cobb v. Long Estate 2017 ONCA 717 and El-Khodr v. Lackie 2017 ONCA 716 now provide clarification on the application of the amendment to the rate of pre-judgment interest in s.258.3(8.1) of the Insurance Act which came in to force on January 1, 2015. The amendment effectively provides that the rate established through s.128(2) of the Courts of Justice Act does not apply to claims for non-pecuniary damages arising from a car accident.

The question which arose is whether the amendment applied only to accidents which took place after the enactment or whether it included claims arising from accidents which took place prior to the enactment.

As section 130 of the Act allows the court to alter the rate of pre-judgment interest, the Court of Appeal held that the Act did not create a vested right to a particular rate of pre-judgment interest. The amendment affected a procedural rather than substantive right. Therefore, the amendment