Insurance Litigation

Members of our litigation team practice in defence related institutional human rights litigation.  The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”) requires our lawyers to take particular care to protect clients facing sensitive applications before the HRTO.  Lawyers practicing in this area are aware of ways to navigate the HRTO process, while being cognizant of the importance of protecting our clients’ institutional brands.   We specialize in defending all types of HRTO matters, including disputes related to employment, religion, housing and education.  Freedoms related to speech, equality and prevention of discrimination and harassment are areas of specialty within our firm.

Coverage claims are complex and it is critical for the correct issues to be identified and analyzed in the course of the assessment. Beard Winter's coverage lawyers have years of experience in this area and, as a result, we can provide the detailed and reasoned opinions that are needed in these type of disputes. As a result of the first party nature of such claims, and the risk of bad faith exposure, we take great care to employ vetting systems on these matters to ensure our advice is sound and our clients protected in the positions they take on coverage.

Our accident benefits practice group has extensive and well-documented experience defending claims within the FSCO and ADR arbitral forums, and our clients have continued to place their trust in the group to lead them through the emerging License Appeal Tribunal (LAT) system. In order to provide the latest information and tools to address the dynamic nature of SABS legislation and the case law interpreting same, our group also offers regular publications and focused seminars to our clients.

Our loss transfer and priority dispute practice group has an extensive history both within the firm and within the industry, and includes lawyers who are now called upon by their peers to act as arbitrators. With recent arbitral and court decisions continuing to re-shape the loss transfer/priority landscape, our group appreciates the importance of crafting solutions that are both efficient and creative.

Our Life/Disability/Health (LDH) team has years of experience advising domestic and international insurers on their litigation defence needs in this emerging area of practice. The LDH professionals at Beard Winter LLP understand, through our service to numerous institutional clients, that vigorous and exacting defences are crucial in this highly specialised and aggressively expanding area of law.  Our clients appreciate our common sense and cost-effective approach to handling their claims including disputes involving short and long-term disability, critical illness, life and health insurance matters.  We also counsel new insurers entering the Canadian life and health market how to best position themselves and their products.

Our commitment to our insurer clients is to provide the highest standard of legal advice on every file, with results that exceed expectations.  We tailor our services to meet your business objectives by executing case resolution programs that resolve claims quickly and in the most cost-conscious manner. Always focused on delivering outstanding results both inside and outside the courtroom.  Backed up by our record of successfully arguing a broad range of important legal issues at all levels of Canadian courts, including the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Federal Court of Canada.

Beard Winter LLP is an industry affiliate of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA)

Our subrogation practice group represents a number of national insurers addressing all manner of recovery claims, taking a pragmatic approach to the litigation process in order to best serve the goals of each individual client matter.

Our mediation and alternative dispute resolution group is led by Ken Bialkowski, who has practiced almost exclusively as a top-tier mediator and private arbitrator for almost 20 years. The lawyers in our mediation/alternative dispute resolution group possess the skill and experience necessary to assist both insurers and claimants in coming to consensus resolutions, no matter how complex the legal or factual landscape.

The partners at Beard Winter have years of experience handling professional negligence claims. This experience covers a broad range of professions including, but not limited to, lawyers, building inspectors, mortgage brokers, accountants and various types of health professionals.

Our lawyers have considerable experience defending a wide variety of Occupiers’ Liability disputes, representing both global and national insurers, as well as self-insured commercial retailers, including some of the largest retail chains in the country. Whether the dispute revolves around coverage, liability or damages, our approach is to balance aggression and efficiency to ensure that the particular needs of each client are appropriately addressed.

We act for a number of international insurers who specialize in providing coverage to commercial liquor hosts including event venues, restaurants, taverns, clubs, bars and pubs.  Our lawyers routinely deal with claims relating to over-service, patron on patron assaults and use of force claims against security personnel.

Beard Winter has extensive experience handling complex first party, subrogated and general negligence matters relating to commercial general liability and property losses. We have defended a wide variety and level of construction type claims, defending contractors and subcontractors responsible for all different aspects of the construction process. This has included a full range of construction projects, from multimillion dollar condominium and commercial buildings to private home and isolated construction projects.

We offer lawyers with a specialty in the area at all experience levels to maintain cost effective and efficient representation on behalf of our clients.

Beard Winter has years of experience in defending personal injury litigation on behalf recreational facilities, sport associations, equipment manufacturers, municipalities and conservation authorities. Often times, due to the inherent risks associated with sports and other recreational activities, these claims involve catastrophic injuries and complex legal issues.

Our firm has acted on some of the leading cases in Ontario in the context of recreational liability including successfully defeating claims based on liability waivers.

We act for numerous manufacturers, and insurers, in this area which has enabled our lawyers to develop their knowledge and enhance their skills in product liability claims. Depending on the nature of claims, we are always aware of the risk for class actions to arise in the context of product liability actions. As with all our practice groups, the collegial nature amongst our lawyers allows us to provide opinions based on the knowledge of multiple lawyers. This ensures that our work product is comprehensive, accurate and tailored to solve problems for our clients. We have acted for certain manufacturers for years because they trust our advice and know that we can provide a high level of advocacy at a reasonable cost.