Law Times

Page 4 November 5, 2018 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com NEWS their debt. Then, they saw angry re- sponses to the university's cam- paign and decided to ride the momentum, handing out but- tons and promoting the letter on social media all under the same Barriers to Excellence umbrella. "There have been so many initiatives over the years and none of them have worked," she says. In the winter of the 2003 to 2004 school year, first-year law students paid $16,000 in fees, according to the earliest data on the University of Toronto fee website. In the 2017 to 2018 win- ter term, first-year law students' fees had more than doubled to $34,980, the website says. Iacobucci said in an e-mail statement to Law Times that the school continues to "attract the best and brightest students from diverse backgrounds, even as funding sources other than tuition have significantly dimin- ished and are taking a number of steps, including fundraising for student aid, to ensure that this remains the case." But Toronto lawyer David Baker has a different take. Baker is a member of the class of 1975, and he says many of his class- mates came from modest back- grounds. Baker says that when classmates at a reunion in 2015 heard about the private debt loads on current students, they were "absolutely f labbergasted." "We just could not see how it was possible for students from families of modest income to go to U of T law school and we thought that was wrong. And we thought the law school needed to correct it rather than turn to alumni and assume that alumni could somehow reverse this," he says. Renatta Austin, like Giroux, graduated in 2012, and says she will not be donating to the Uni- versity of Toronto's alumni cam- paign this year as she is still pay- ing her own tuition. She says she is "living proof of why people don't do this work and can't afford to do this." "I primarily practise family law in a community setting — I do the work that we encourage young lawyers to do, focused on access to justice," says Austin, who runs Toronto law firm Eg- linton West Law Office through the Renatta Austin PC. LT cent since the mid-1990s. Mark Wiseman, co-chair- man of the alumni donation campaign and senior managing director at BlackRock, says he is actually delighted that students are engaged in the discussion around financial aid, adding that the debate is a great example of the diversity of opinion and debate for which the school is known. Wiseman says that even if tuition were frozen or lowered, he would continue to try and raise more funds from alumni for student aid because there will always be future students that need assistance. "We have the same goals: to ensure that anybody who has the credential and the academic ability to attend the University of Toronto law school is able to do so and that those students at the law school are able to make choices that are not based solely on income," says Wiseman, who splits his time between Toronto and New York. However, a counter-cam- paign was announced Oct. 26 with an open letter, which has now been signed by more than 300 students and alumni. The campaign, called Bar- riers to Excellence, includes an open letter to dean Edward Iaco- bucci, saying that students "ap- plaud" the school's fundraising campaign. However, students also say tuition costs must be ad- dressed, because of the faculty's "accessibility crisis and its effects on access to justice and student well-being." "Achievement, not debt toler- ance, ought to be the sole criteria of admission," said the letter. The letter asks that the school reveal how many students will graduate more than $100,000 in debt, as well as the average incomes of parents of students since 2015. It also asks for a breakdown of money budgeted for student clubs, clinics and fi- nancial aid, as well as more in- formation about how the school makes money. India Annamanthadoo, in her second year at the law school, says that she saw many of her classmates feeling defeated when the second-year recruitment process seemed to be driven by landing jobs that would service the insurance companies that continue this practice and ulti- mately threaten their licence to sell insurance." NDP member Gurratan Singh has expressed interest in the issue, says Harte, but he has not heard anything from the Liberals or Progressive Conser- vative Party. "We certainly hope that the new government has a lot more concern for the little guy — the small individual that's injured in these accidents, because there are over 60,000 a year in the province that are injured," says Ralston. The six claimants have claimed "general, special and ag- gravated damages" of $100 mil- lion each, for "personal injury costs and economic loss," which would total $600 million. According to an email from Teri Lehmann of Intact Insur- ance Company, which was part of a media brief provided by law- yers for the class action claim- ants, Intact modified its system so that HST no longer comes out of its customers' benefits. Ralston says Belair has also reimbursed some of its custom- ers who were charged the HST. In 2016, on behalf of the On- tario Trial Lawyers Association, then-president Adam Wagman wrote to CEO and superinten- dent of the FSCO, Brian Mills, to alert him of the practice by insurers regarding the HST. Ronald Bohm, president of the OTLA, says that prior to that, members raised the issue within the OTLA. "While individually they were often small amounts, it seemed like it was wrong and it ought not to have been tak- ing place," he says. "So, once we looked into it a little bit, [we] realized that the concerns were well founded." Bohm says the FSCO told the OTLA it was aware insurers had been misapplying the HST, that it had contacted them and those insurers had ensured the regula- tor they would not subtract the HST from benefits in the future. In two 2017 decisions from the Ontario Licence Appeal Tri- bunal, Aviva was forced to pay the HST for injury claimants. In another Licence Appeal Tribu- nal decision between an injured claimant and the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund, adjudi- cator Ian Maedel wrote, "It has long been FSCO's policy that H.S.T. is payable in addition to any rehabilitation benefit." Responding to a request for comment, Aviva said via email that it is seeking clarification from the government on how the tax is applied to its customers. "In fact, this is part of our commitment to continually ex- plore ways to reduce or elimi- nate complexity for them and to increase trust in the insur- ance industry overall. We exist to help our customers in their time of need," says Aviva Canada spokesman Fabrice de Dongo. As the issue is before the courts, it is inappropriate to comment on the details, says de Dongo. In an emailed state- ment, Sarah Kennedy, director of corporate communications for Royal & Sun Alliance In- surance Company of Canada, which controls Unifund As- surance company, said, "As this matter is before the court, we cannot provide comment." Certas Home and Automo- bile Insurance Company is con- trolled by Desjardins. Its spokes- man, John Bordignon, said via email that the company was "un- able to comment further." Intact Insurance Company, Belair Insurance Company Inc. and Allstate Insurance Company of Canada could not immediately provide comment. Malon Edwards, senior com- munications officer for the Fi- nancial Services Commission of Ontario, said via email, "FSCO is aware of the statements of claim involving FSCO. As the matter is before the courts, FSCO is un- able to comment further." LT Concerns were 'well founded' Continued from page 1 Continued from page 1 More than 300 sign open letter © 2018 Thomson Reuters Canada Limited 00249KX-A91152-CM Firm Central with enhanced reporting. Safe, secure, and now more powerful. Track your firm's key performance indicators and customize your data display in Firm Central with new enhanced reporting features. Enhanced reporting gives you access to important insights and key metrics in four areas to help you better practice, manage, and grow your firm: • Revenue year-to-date • Top client by revenue rolling year • Aging accounts receivable year-to-date • Revenue by practice area year-to-date See how easily you can interpret your firm's overall revenue, billed, collected, and WIP financials with new enhanced reporting in Firm Central. Start your free trial today. Visit www.thomsonreuters.ca/firm-central

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