Brenda Hollingsworth warns upcoming changes will limit coverage and flood courts with new litigation
This article was produced in partnership with Auger Hollingsworth Accident & Injury Lawyers
Sweeping reforms to Ontario’s Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS) will remove long-standing entitlements and shift essential benefits to optional add-ons. Set to take effect next summer, the changes will dramatically narrow the scope of mandatory auto insurance coverage.
Brenda Hollingsworth, lawyer and co-owner of Auger Hollingsworth Accident & Injury Lawyers, has witnessed first-hand the critical support these benefits provide to injured clients — and she’s sounding the alarm.
“These changes are largely uninformed by the lived realities of accident victims and Ontarian consumers must be informed about these changes and the impact they’ll have in the event of an accident,” she says. “This demands a well-planned, sophisticated yet accessible public education campaign.”
Erosion of accident benefits is nothing new: this is the most recent in a steady clawing back under the guise of lowering consumer premiums, a cost relief that has yet to be realized. Under this new regime, coverages such as income replacement, non-earner, and caregiver benefits as well as visitor expenses — included since the inception of the schedule in the 1990s — will no longer be automatically included in basic policies.
While these categories might seem minor, Hollingsworth emphasizes their practical and emotional significance. Under visitor expenses, for example, a student struck by a car in Toronto can fly their parents in from Vancouver to visit them. Not only does this bolster spirits, but the visitors also serve as advocates in the hospital setting — a need often supported by an experienced Toronto car accident lawyer who understands the importance of these overlooked benefits.
“It makes a big difference in recovery and provides a real service,” Hollingsworth says, adding that other impactful coverages such as compensation for damaged personal items have also been eliminated entirely.
While a small ticket item for insurance companies, it also made a significant difference to injured claimants. If someone’s prescription glasses or hearing aids are destroyed in a car accident, they may be covered in a tort claim — six years down the line. That becomes a significant barrier to recovery for many people, Hollingsworth notes.
She also expresses concern that under the upcoming changes, those without their own auto insurance may be excluded from accessing optional accident benefits, even if the at-fault driver who struck them did purchase them. This is a major gap in protection for vulnerable road users and could leave injured pedestrians or cyclists with no immediate support, particularly if they also lack access to workplace or private disability plans.
“If I’m reading the regulations correctly — and I think I am — that’s going to be shocking, and a real problem,” she says. “People who are self-employed and therefore not participating in EI rely on the income replacement benefit to keep their apartment until they can get back to work, as an example. There’s lots to worry about.”
Ultimately, this reform shifts the financial burden from private insurers to public systems like ODSP, Ontario Works, and OHIP. Calling it a move that amounts to the privatization of profit and socialization of risk, “we’re removing private coverage only to make injured people dependent on public assistance,” she notes.
Hollingsworth currently has a catastrophically injured client in his 50s who lives with a family member. Like many vulnerable individuals, he doesn’t have auto insurance. He was jaywalking when struck, meaning he would likely bear significant liability and recover little through a tort claim.
Under the current SABS regime, accident benefits have been “life-sustaining.” However, had the new rules been in place, his survival and care would become a public welfare issue.
“It’s a huge burden managing him, both physically and financially, and it’s impossible to imagine how he’d survive if he didn’t have access to that full range of benefits,” she says. “These cuts just don’t make sense from a public policy perspective.”
Hollingsworth warns that without essential financial support, vulnerable individuals — particularly pedestrians, cyclists, and those without private insurance — will be pushed towards litigation, adding pressure to Ontario’s courts.
Currently, a segment of injured people chooses not to pursue tort claims because their needs are adequately covered by the SABS. Losing that safety net means they’ll have no choice but to turn to the already overburdened tort system for compensation.
The changes may also open the door to an increase in broker negligence claims. Given that many critical accident benefits will now be optional add-ons, brokers will have a heightened duty to properly inform clients of these changes.
While such cases are complex and not easy to win — and Hollingsworth expresses skepticism about how many claimants will have the energy or resources to pursue this kind of litigation, particularly when already managing serious or catastrophic injuries — it is a heightened and significant exposure for brokers and insurers.
“You can certainly see the risk,” Hollingsworth notes. “These are earth-shattering changes, and it puts the onus on a broker to make sure they explain the difference. All it takes is one successful claim and the floodgates will open.”
A big component of delivering practical assistance is getting clients access to the SABS in the short term before securing financial security for them to meet their long-term needs. As the changes loom, the lawyers at Auger Hollingsworth Accident & Injury Lawyers are well-positioned to continue to deliver impactful service to clients.
“We are file builders, and we do a very good job of it,” Hollingsworth sums up. “We know what it takes to demonstrate to insurance companies that our clients deserve an appropriate level of compensation.”
Going forward, Hollingsworth urges plaintiff-side lawyers to adjust their litigation strategies. From reassessing damage claims to capture costs no longer covered, to updating pleadings to factor in new heads of damages falling outside the new framework, it falls to lawyers to mitigate the fallout.
“All of us need to adjust upward and proactively help clients understand what’s changed before they find out the hard way,” she says. “People think these situations will never happen to them, but it happens to Ontarians every day. We must prepare for what’s to come.”
