Retrospectively Or Not Retrospectively - That Is The Question

The issue of whether the recent amendments to Ontario's Insurance Act dealing with the indexation of the statutory deductible to inflation was recently before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Corbett v. Odorico, 2016 ONSC 1964 (CanLII).  

Following a six week jury trial, the Plaintiff, who was injured in a December 5, 2009 motor vehicle accident, was awarded $33,000 in general damages.  After finding that the Plaintiff had satisfied the verbal threshold, Justice Hackland considered whether the recent amendments to the Insurance Act indexing the statutory deductible to inflation applied retrospectively to ongoing motor vehicle personal injury actions commenced before the August 1, 2015 amendments took effect. Justice Hackland agreed with the defendant that a regulation varying the amount of the deductible for fixed annual periods is procedural in nature and, as such, applies retrospectively.  In Justice Hackland's view, the amendments were designed to fix the