CAPUTO V. NOVAK

CAPUTO V NOVAK - PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE

Ava Hillier tackles the issue of what happens when you have a negligent lawyer to whom insurance coverage has been refused by the Lawyers Professional Indemnity Company.

All lawyers in Ontario must carry mandatory liability insurance, to protect the public from negligent actions of lawyers. There are however circumstances where the liability insurer decides to deny the payment of these claims, leaving the victim of the lawyer’s negligence with no recourse or compensation. In this case, the liability insurer for the negligent lawyer argued that the contents of their internal file was privileged, and therefore declined our request for production of the file. Ava Hillier litigated this issue in the Superior Court of Justice and successfully established that the contents of the insurer’s file were not covered under litigation privilege, and were properly producible. The representative of the lawyer’s insurance company was also ordered to re-attend for cross examination and answer all of our questions on the issue of coverage.

Caputo v Novak, 2016 ONSC 4176