The Lawyers Weekly reported:
The Nova Scotia government is poised to scrap a controversial $2,500 cap on damages for minor injuries suffered in highway crashes — a restriction personal-injury lawyers contend is unfair to accident victims but insurers insist is keeping premiums affordable.
Click here for the article.
For obvious reasons this would be excellent news for Plaintiff lawyers in Nova Scotia.
Here is an interesting article by a tort professor that describes how tort liability for a personal injury can be viewed as social insurance.
Click here for article.
In Alberta a successful court challenge was made to the general damages cap for minor damages being $4000. However, this summer the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned the decision and found that the cap on damages did not violate the constitutional rights of injured car victims in Alberta.
The decision is Morrow v. Zhang, [2009] ABCA 215
The courts rationale was based on the fact that while injured parties lost the right to compensation they were given access to an enhanced accident benefits system.
The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal is expected to also rule on the issue of a $2,500 cap for damages in the case of Hartling et al v. Nova Scotia It’s anticipated that the decision will be out sometime in Christmas.