Ontario Appellate Court Recognizes Adjusters’ Agency Immunity

Gilbertson Davis LLPAgents and Brokers, Appeals, Appellate Advocacy, Insurance, Professional Indemnity, Professional Liability, Professions0 Comments

Independent insurance adjusters face unprecedented professional pressures and competing demands from stakeholders.  As the front-line representatives of insurance companies in the aftermath of an accident or loss, they deal directly with accident victims, property owners and insurance service providers.  Many unnecessary disputes erupt over misunderstandings about the adjuster’s role as an intermediary.  As I explained in a 2014 article in Claims Canada, “Addressing E&O Exposures: How adjusters can avoid the squeeze of professional liability claims,” there are useful litigation-prevention strategies for training adjusters to explain their role to stakeholders. Despite the practical and principled impediments to parties suing insurance adjusters, litigants and their lawyers in insurance cases often sue them, preferring to draw their weapons first and to ask the important questions later.  What insurance adjusters have lacked in cases where parties have sued them in breach of contract cases together with insurers is a specific legal precedent barring many such actions … Read More