The Peak, Simon Fraser University's Student Newspaper since 1965, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6, e-mail: epeak@mail.peak.sfu.ca, phone: (604) 291-3597 fax: (604) 291-3786
Volume 94, Issue 11 November 11, 1996 News 

New no-fault system could hurt students

by dave sturgeon

Student potential is irrelevant to the no-fault auto insurance proposal made to the provincial government through a study commissioned by I.C.B.C., says Vancouver lawyer Faith Hayman.

"It could be devastating for students. If they decide that your income loss is based on your historical income, and you're in the second or third year of school and you've done very well and you have every potential to go out and earn a good income in your chosen profession, and you're injured to the point where you can't do that, you're not compensated for that loss", she says.

Lawyers like Faith Hayman say that the existing tort system better represents innocent accident victims' needs especially for minority groups like students, whose earning potential may not have yet been determined.

"I think a no-fault system, by trying to treat everybody as though they're the same, really does injustice to a lot of people, most of the people who don't fit that average profile. It particularly penalizes women, native people, artists, students. These are segments of our population whose circumstances are not your nine-five job and thirty thousand dollar a year income", she says.

She also says that no-fault systems generally remove the guilty party's blame for the accident.

"The people who have been injured, as a result of no fault of their own, are entitled to claim for the full extent of their losses against the negligent drivers under the current system. So only the innocent accident victims in the existing Tort system are entitled to receive 100 per cent compensation for their injuries. In a no-fault system, that 100 per cent compensation is spread out evenly between the innocent accident victims and the negligent drivers", she says.

The no-fault system has been proposed to the B.C. government as a cost-cutting initiative. The group doing the assessement is KPMG Chartered Accountants. A Ministry of Finance Spokesperson, who does not wished to be named, has estimated the completion for the proposal towards the end of this year.

He points out that most descriptions of the no-fault system rely on generalities, and suggests that media coverage seems to indicate a negative perspective when covering no-fault systems. "I see no reason why the existing penalty-point system would be changed. No-fault does not suggest that negligent people would get away scot-free regardless of penalty points. We're currently looking at a wide range of systems and experimenting with different possibilities for B.C.", he says.

The current tort system pays a small amount of money for the at-fault drivers under what are called no-fault benefits. This up to 3 hundred dollars a week for disability benefits. If they were earning money and couldn't work, they would be eligible to recover up to three hundred a week and a $150,000 for medical and rehabilitation benefits over their lifetime. These benefits are available to everybody right now in B.C.

No-fault systems have been tried in Ontario and Quebec, as well as the United States.

In a recent article for Thompson's World Insurance News, president and CEO of I.C.B.C Thom Thompson stated that if the government decides to go to a no-fault system, he would want it to be only on the benefits side. Those responsible for accidents should still pay higher premiums.


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