B.C. motorists may soon get a break on their auto insurance premiums.

ICBC wants to cut basic rates an average of 1.9 per cent effective Nov. 1.

It would be the first cut in more than a decade on the price of compulsory insurance on which the public auto insurer holds a monopoly.

The B.C. Utilities Commission still has to approve the cut.

But ICBC will have to cut much further to get basic rates back down to 2005 levels – increases in 2006 and 2007 raised basic premiums nearly 10 per cent.

"We'd love to see this continue," ICBC spokesman Adam Grossman said, but added further basic premium cuts will depend on the strength of ICBC's finances and the costs of accident claims.

"We know basic rates are extremely important to everybody because they apply to all of our customers."

ICBC has made much more frequent cuts to its optional rates – where it competes with other insurers – and now charges 17 per cent less on average for optional coverage than it did five years ago.

Officials credit safer driving by motorists with helping reduce costs.

The announcement came just after ICBC pulled a $1.7-million ad campaign that officials decided was in poor taste due to its sexual content.

ICBC has recorded rising profits so far this year and reported a $563-million profit for 2009, up 13 per cent.

The provincial government this year moved to tap some of the cash ICBC generates to pay down the B.C. deficit.

It ordered ICBC earlier this year to hand over $487 million worth of its reserves that had been generated from the optional side of the business and deemed surplus to the corporation's needs.

ICBC has invested nearly $810,000 in road improvements around Kelowna in 2009.

Most Kelowna residents have seen the improvements along Harvey Avenue and Highway 97. They are among the 21 road enhancement projects that ICBC helped pay for in Kelowna last year to help make roads safer for all users.

Now moving into its third decade, ICBC’s road improvement program invested approximately $1.7 million in the Southern Interior region and $8.1 million across B.C. in 2009 (including the money spent here).

ICBC works in partnership with municipalities and the provincial government on delivering road enhancements. ICBC also participates in engineering studies and assists communities with road safety issues in the planning of roadways and managing traffic.

“The City of Kelowna is committed to ensuring residents can travel safely and efficiently on our roadways. We value the opportunity to work with ICBC to help make our community safer through road improvement projects,” said Kelowna Mayor Sharon Shepherd.

Projects proposed for road improvement are assessed to ensure they make B.C. roads safer for all road users.

An independent evaluation of ICBC-funded road improvements found that, measured over a two-year period after a project’s completion, there was an 18 per cent reduction in property damage crashes and a 25 per cent reduction in the number of severe crashes where someone is either killed or seriously injured in the crash.

According to ICBC, the investments helped many British Columbians escape injury and death.

There have been recent discussions regarding auto insurance in B.C. and other provinces, and we wanted to take this opportunity to share some key differences.

It is difficult to make direct comparisons between auto insurance rates in one province compared to another as each province and policy is different. What we can say for certain is that ICBC’s insurance rates are low and stable, where rates in other provinces tend to fluctuate much more

As an example, in 2008 our combined basic and optional rate went down by 1.3 per cent, and over the past five years rates have only gone up by $2 for customers who have purchased the same Basic and Optional coverage.

Motorists in B.C. benefit from some of the best insurance coverage in the country. Our unrestricted tort system offers one of the highest no-fault medical and rehab benefits in Canada ($150,000) which is three to six times more than offered by some other provinces with tort.

Perhaps the most meaningful direct comparison we can make is based on the loss ratio – which is ratio of claims and claims related costs to insurance premium dollars earned. The industry average is about 72 cents paid out for every premium dollar. At ICBC, the ratio is about 87 cents per dollar.

Instead of comparing provinces, we should make comparisons in B.C. where there is competition for optional insurance. The vast majority of motorists are continuing to come to us for their optional insurance which tells us that our rates are competitive and our coverage is the best.

Is ICBC perfect? No, but it will always work hard to provide the best possible value and customer service.

Jon Schubert
ICBC president and CEO

Vernon RCMP spokesman Gord Molendyk is well aware of an extended automobile warranty scam that has hit B.C.

He’s had someone call his home phone offering up an extended warranty for his car if he gives them his credit card number.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has received inquiries regarding a live or automated telephone call informing them that the warranty on their vehicles may be expiring soon.

“I had one of those calls on our answering machine the other day, and the thing is our warranty is nearing the end,” said Molendyk. “I thought, ‘forget it, I’m not interested,’ and didn’t pay attention to it. Our call display showed the call originated from the United States.”

The BBB said consumers are confused by the phone calls because in many cases they have older vehicles not eligible for warranties, and that callers have used pressure tactics to urge people to reveal personal information and credit card numbers.

“I’ve never heard of auto dealers extending a warranty, and they’re not going to extend for five years because now you’ve got a 10-year-old vehicle, and they’re not going to extend it for a couple of hundred dollars,” said Molendyk. “If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Why not deal with the dealer you’ve dealt with?”

Consumers are being contacted by a company representative advising that their vehicle warranty will expire in two days. The person on the phone claims information was provided by the manufacturer that provided the original warranty.

Consumers are then offered a five-year extended warranty for $175 to $400, and asked to provide a credit card number. The representative tells them they can contact a warranty centre.

Telephone prefixes have been appearing on customers’ phones from across the U.S. and even Canada, but police believe the numbers are being “spoofed,” or changed to hide the identity of the call’s origins.

This latest phone solicitation scam to hit B.C. has led to a cease and desist order from the province’s Financial Institutions Commission.

The order concerns automated messages that are trying to sell after-market vehicle warranties.

If you receive one of these calls, BBB suggests you refer to your original vehicle documents, talk with your car dealer, check with the BBB, check to see if the warranty provider is licensed, and be suspicious of low prices.

http://www.paulhergott.com/

Injustice makes my skin crawl.

We are exposed to life’s minor injustices on a regular basis—an impatient shopper cutting in line, a schoolyard bully stealing a treat, a cheater.

Even the minor ones are hard to take. I want to jump in, send the shopper to the back of the line, return the treat, disqualify the cheater.

Of course, I am not alone. I like to think that we all have that sense of fairness.

How often, though, do we actually get to stop injustice in its tracks?

Not long ago, I was consulted by a fellow who had been injured in a car crash through no fault of his own.

It was just over two years after the crash and the pain from those injuries had become chronic.

He was looking for a lawyer to help him achieve fair compensation for his injuries.

How I wished he had come to me just a couple weeks earlier.

Have you ever heard of a limitation period?  It is a time limit.

If a lawsuit is not started within the time limit, the right to fair compensation expires.

One day, you have a claim and the next day, the claim is gone.

The fellow who consulted me had been dealing directly with the insurance company.

I don’t know whether the adjuster handling his claim mentioned the limitation period but I do know, with certainty, that he wasn’t sufficiently warned because he didn’t come to me until after the limitation period had expired.

One day he had a case and the next day he didn’t.

I wonder how many of the hundreds of millions of dollars of insurance company profits are made up of cases like that one. I wonder if they uncorked champagne.

Is your skin crawling?  Hang on. I have a better story.

It was a Friday afternoon. I had just returned to the office from a type of pre-trial hearing.

A lady called me over as I was heading into my office. She asked me if I did any personal injury work. (No, she doesn’t read this column.)

She told me about her sister who had been in a crash a couple of years earlier.

She had been dealing directly with the insurance company but had finally decided to hire a lawyer.

I don’t know exactly what the insurance adjuster told her but I do know what she had come to understand from those discussions.

She understood that if she didn’t settle her claim within

two years, she would have to hire a lawyer.

Her sister was helping her find a lawyer.

She happened to see me coming into my office and happened to inquire.

Get this: It was two years to the day after the crash.

In my mind’s eye, I could already see the bottles of champagne lined up, on ice at the insurance company offices.

In 2 ½ hours, the court registry where the lawsuit had to be filed would close.

In 150 minutes, the claim would be gone.

There’s something about a looming deadline that focuses you.

There’s also something about 150 minutes standing between justice and injustice that stokes the fire under your boiler. 

Fortunately, we live in a technological world. I was able to contact the sister on her cell phone.

Once I explained the urgency of the situation, she immediately left work went home and gave me the necessary information from the police report.

I left an urgent message for the adjuster but, of course, I couldn’t rely on a timely response from him.

I prepared the writ on my computer, printed, signed, scanned and filed it electronically.

It was a sweet thing seeing that electronically affixed court registry date stamp on the document.

Injustice averted—by a hair.

I’m not a champagne kind of guy. I cracked a beer or two.

There’s a lesson in this.  You cannot rely on an insurance company to advise you about your rights. That’s not its role.

Its allegiance is to the driver who caused the crash and to its bottom line, not to you.

Another lesson? Sometimes the stars really do line up.

This column is intended to provide general information about injury claims. It is not a substitute for retaining a lawyer to provide legal advice specifically pertaining to your case.

Paul Hergott is a lawyer with Hergott Law on the Westside. If there are particular issues you would like discussed in this column, please e-mail Paul directly at:

paul "at" hlaw.ca

http://www.paulhergott.com/