Articles

Sorry for the sketchy notes on this – I made a few calls and here are the main concerns we came up with. 

HOMEOWNERS POLICY EXPOSURE

Homeowners, condominium owners, mobile homeowners and tenants insurance typically include $1,000,000 liability coverage.  This is  to “pay all sums which you become legally liable to pay as compensatory damages because of unintentional bodily injury or property damage arising out of your personal actions anywhere in the world …”

·          Simple concerns are things like having a house full of friends and accidentally damaging the home – ie. curtains catch on fire, someone falls into or kicks in some drywall, dishes being destroyed from being micro-waved when not micro-safe).  These things can be taken care of privately, but if serious damage results it can fall into the realm of insurance.

·          A much more serious concern is if someone is impaired, driving and kills someone.  The driver can be sued – as well as the person who supplied the alcohol or over-served the driver.  The big questions will be who supplied the liquor? – especially if the driver is not of legal drinking age

·          A law suit can name every person at whose home the driver was it through the course of the evening, and every bar they were at (if applicable).  The highest responsibility will likely fall on the house they were last at.

·          Depending on the company and the wordings, there may be a debate on whether the coverage is there … since some policies exclude liability for “bodily injury or property damage caused by any intentional or criminal act or failure to act by any person insured by this policy or any other person at the direction of any person insured by this policy”

·          If it is covered, included in the premium for your policy is “defense, settlement and supplementary payments in addition to the amount of insurance”.

·          Liability usually “will not pay punitive or exemplary damages, meaning that part of an award by a court which is in excess of compensatory damages and is stated or intended to be a punishment to you”.

·          Most policies cover $1,000,000 liability.  An eye-opener for you, based on some recent settlements, is that the cost of lifetime care for a teenager who has been rendered a paraplegic or quadriplegic as a result of an accident can be as high as $3,500,000 to $4,000,000!  Bodily injury can be caused by something as mundane as wrestling or a fist-fight.  If someone is hit, or falls and knocks their head on a rock.  It’s horrible to think how quickly it could happen.

·          If a judgement against you is above the coverage limits on the policy, it comes out of your pocket. 

·          A recent claim (law suit) one of my companies was involved in:  The family of an impaired driver who was killed (Family #1) sued another family (#2), alleging that son #2 had been with son #1 throughout the evening, and had helped him get into vehicle knowing how drunk he was.  Son #2 was sued for his actions in leading to the death of the other young man, and also the victims of the impaired driver.  In this case it was proven that family #2’s son had gone home earlier in the evening, and was not involved … but it could have very easily gone the other way.

·          In the case of serious Bodily Injury or property damage, many people can be named in the law suit and have to defend their actions.  If there is a bush party and the stories of the witnesses conflict, or point fingers at others, everyone can be drawn into the law suit.  DON’T THINK YOUR NEIGHBOUR WON’T SUE YOU, OR THAT YOUR CHILD’S FRIENDS AND FAMILY ARE YOUR FRIENDS AND THEY WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO YOU.  Legal battles and insurance settlements are sometimes the only way to take care of the injured person.  The goal of the legal system is to make people take financial responsibility for the consequences of their action … and when the financial responsibility involves lifetime care for an innocent victim, there may be no other place for the money to come from.

AUTOMOBILE POLICY EXPOSURE

·          Most automobile policies cover $1,000,000 liability.  If someone is killed as a result of a vehicle accident, this policy would respond to pay for legal liability.  Again, settlements are going up!

·          If there is an accident and the driver is impaired, the Alberta Standard Automobile Policy restricts what is covered.  The policy will pay for the damage caused to the other person, but will not pay for any damage done to the driver’s vehicle.  

·          If the driver is impaired, or not authorized or qualified to drive, coverage will be denied for any payment of weekly income if the driver is wholly or partially disabled.

·          Alcohol does not have to be involved for an accident to happen.  Every week there are accidents where someone has lost control of a vehicle and passengers or pedestrians are injured.  Insurance is there to protect you from accidental injury or death of passengers in these situations.

On a personal note, some of my best memories of High School are bush bashes at the gravel pit, house parties, or hanging out at Jarvis … and some of the sample claims are from parties I was at (ie. curtain, microwave).  I don’t think that all of the “fun” has to be taken out of our youth by the responsibilities of becoming adults.  However, I believe it is important to be more aware of the possible consequences of our actions and take steps to avoid the obviously HUGE areas of risk.  To me the biggest one is drinking and driving – and has been for a long time.  In 1985, when I graduated HCHS, a few of my friends and I organized the first grad party shuttle bus with the cooperation of the RCMP and many of the parents.  To this day I am relieved that our Grad was one of the few in that “era” that wasn’t tarnished by the memory of friends that didn’t make it.  I am happy that measures are still being taken to work together at the school to protect Hinton’s greatest asset – the youth of this community.

Since I had no knowledge of this panel until earlier today, and am not aware of who the target audience or participants are, and am unable to be there, I would like to make one final point.  I hope it doesn’t come across too “sappy”. The biggest frustration we faced when organizing the safe grad in 1985 was that many adults and parents treated us like children.  Remember that the key to keeping our “children” safe is to listen to them, involve them and support them.  They don’t want to attend a funeral for a friend any more than we do.

Please call if you have any questions!