Windsor law firm, Greg Monforton and Partners, has added another five insurance companies to a series of class-action lawsuits over HST charged to accident victims.
Last week, Jennifer Bezaire, a partner at the law firm, announced the lawsuits would target Aviva, Unifund, Belairdirect, Certas, and Allstate.
Now, Co-operators, Wawanesa, Economical, Commonwealth, and Echelon have been served with individual lawsuits alleging $100-million each in damages.
The action also names the Financial Services Commission of Ontario.
The 11 lawsuits now claim a total of $1.4-billion in damages.
The lawsuits seek to force insurers to pay back HST wrongly charged to policyholders, and seeks an injunction, so they do not charge the tax in the future.
Bezaire, who is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, said the organization complained to the FSCO in 2015 about the practice. However, the insurers have ignored the FSCO and continued to deduct HST from settlements.
A statement to the media said, "there is no clear industry position on whether insurers will cover HST costs in car accident medical benefits."
"Some auto insurers, like Intact have been following the rules all along, while others continue to shortchange accident victims. People are watching what these insurers are doing, and the marketplace may very well decide this issue before the courts."
Last week, Bezaire announced a toll-free hotline and website for public complaints against any insurer who has cut benefits by the amount of the HST. Since then, she said she and her partners have been overwhelmed with calls, and that the "unfair practices we have identified appear to be widespread."
The hotline is 1-866-540-2747, and the website is autohstclassaction.com.
