INTRODUCTION
Insurers doing business in British Columbia need to be aware of
a new forum for resolution of certain civil disputes. The Civil
Resolution Tribunal Act (the
"Act") has received Royal Assent from the
legislature and is expected to commence operations in late 2013 or
early 2014.
The impetus for the Act is three-fold: (1) to divert
cases from the back-logged docket of the Provincial Small Claims
Court; (2) to provide an inexpensive and efficient means to resolve
disputes that do not warrant the full machinery of a court process;
and (3) to diminish adversarial dispute resolution processes in the
context of close civil relationships such as strata and family
law.
The tribunal's role is to encourage the voluntary resolution
of disputes by agreement and decide those disputes that cannot be
resolved. The role will be implemented as much as possible by the
use of electronic communication in a "virtual" setting in
which the participants communicate with
