Position of Supreme Court for tort reforms

sabpredasabpreda
in Harris.Tort

Why is it that the Supreme Court will stop being plaintiff-friendly if the reforms get enacted? I am confused by what this means.

  • The current system seems to favour the plaintiffs in all 4 aspects of JCCV, so the tort reforms will remove an "advantage"

  • The SCC is currently plaintiff-friendly (which means they tend to favour the plaintiff more often than not?) which gives them an advantage, so when the reforms get enacted the plaintiffs will lose another "advantage"

Why is there a double advantage/double penalty in this case?

Comments

  • chrisboersmachrisboersma

    Tort Reform:
    Some legal groups agree with this approach. Jamie Chipman, a partner with Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales and president of the Canadian Defence Lawyers Association, says there is a

    need for clarity. It’s necessary to finally become proactive in tort reform because I am looking at what the Supreme Court of Canada has been doing of late with respect to any cases involving insurers and statutory language. The Supreme Court is saying if you don’t do anything with this antiquated language, we are going to continue to find a way to come out with decisions that are ‘plaintifffriendly’.

    Basically the current wordings are ambiguous, so the SCC will favour the plaintiff by default. By applying clearer rules and defendant-friendly rules you will create a double advantage.

  • grahamgraham

    To put it bluntly, the SCC is basically telling the legal profession to get off their lazy butts and make a better tort system! Because if they don't the SCC is going make sure things continue to go well for the plaintiffs while defendants will suffer. This may in turn make defense lawyers look bad and defense lawyers don't want that!

    It's true that in a new system, the plaintiffs may not do as well, but the goal is to have a system that's fair. It can be argued that plaintiffs are currently being over-compensated simply because the rules are unclear and if we have clearer rules, that will be good for everyone (plaintiff, defendants, insurers, society.)

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