ICBC Claims and UMP Arbitration Decisions
Most people that are injured in BC motor vehicle collisions have access to “Underinsured Motorist Protection Coverage” (“UMP” for short). Vehicles licensed in BC must carry a minimum of $1 million in UMP coverage. Some vehicles carry more UMP coverage than this.
In catastrophic injury claims it’s important to determine how much UMP Coverage is available as these claims can often exceed a Defendant’s policy limits.
Sections 148.1 – 148.4 of the Insurance (Vehicle) Regulation deal with UMP Claims. When disputes arise as to the availability or the amount of UMP coverage the matter needs to be resolved through private arbitration as opposed to a public lawsuit. One of the difficulties with arbitrations is that they result in private reasons for judgement making it difficult to access precedents.
This difficulty was addressed by a 2007 amendment which requires “An arbitrator who adjudicates a dispute under this section must publish the reasons for the decision by forwarding a copy of the reasons, with personal information that would identify the parties deleted, to the corporation for publication on its website”
If you’re looking for UMP Arbitration Decisions ICBC has been posting these online since 2007. It would be useful if this database was expanded to include decisions from prior to 2007 as UMP cases do not arise frequently compared to judicially decided personal injury claims and many useful precedents exist that are not publicly available. However, this database is a useful starting point when researching UMP related issues and I thought I would point out this resource for those who were unaware of it.