Law Times

Page 10 January 16, 2017 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com Driverless cars to impact lawyers' practices? BY MARG. BRUINEMAN For Law Times I f you're thinking the Internet changed things, start watch- ing the road. It's just a matter of time before driverless vehi- cles will proliferate, say observ- ers, and this will impact the legal profession. Driverless vehicles are already allowed in some test locations. For example, Ontario passed legislation in 2016 allowing road tests of driverless cars and a test vehicle program also launched in the Waterloo area. The primary impact of driv- erless vehicles will be on safety. In its 2015 white paper, Auto- mated Vehicles: The Coming of the Next Disruptive Technology, the Conference Board of Cana- da estimates the total economic benefit of the introduction of driverless vehicles may be sav- ings of more than $65 billion per year, including collision avoid- ance, fuel cost savings and con- gestion avoidance. It anticipates that road fatali- ties will drop to 1,600 per year from 2,000. "Once we have full adoption of computerized cars the way we have computerized airplanes, we will probably see a 90-per- cent reduction in casualties, in terms of accident or death on the roadway related to car ac- cidents," says Toronto-based personal injury lawyer Charles Gluckstein. Gluckstein says a corollary to this is "that there will obvi- ously be less work for lawyers, but there will also be very cheap insurance." "Lawyers will have to go back to doing multiple types of areas of law," says Gluckstein. "If you're starting practice as a personal injury lawyer now, I would have concerns." Every year, car manufactur- ers introduce vehicles with more technological features — already there's adaptive cruise control, lane assist and suites of cameras. Fully driverless vehicles are ex- pected to be ready by 2020. Gluckstein says he expects a lengthy transition period where there will be a mix of vehicles on the road. "Eventually, in 20 [to] 30 years from now, any kind of human-controlled car would be like owning a horse; take it out to your race track or your ranch and you can drive it out there," he says. "The technology is here, but we're going to be in a phase where there's going to be 15 to 20 years of this hybrid period, where it's like having cars and horses interacting." A 2016 study by Borden Ladner Gervais LLP describes the advancements to have the potential to be among the most disruptive technologies since the introduction of the car. The study — "Autonomous Vehicles, Revolutionizing Our World" — notes that while many sec- tors, including manufacturing, technology, transport, logistics, health, municipal planning, in- frastructure and hospitality will be impacted, so, too, will insur- ance and the legal and regula- tory frameworks. BLG partner Robert Love, the firm's focus group leader for the automotive sector in Toronto and the study's co-author, says the primary motivation for au- tomation of vehicles is safety. Taking away the driver, he says, means eliminating driver error. "As the automated features get incorporated into more and more vehicles on the roadway, there's going to be a reduced in- cidence of collisions," says Love. "Over the next, I would say, 10 years, you're going to see a very, very significant reduction of col- lisions and also [in] the severity of collisions." He points to the KPMG 2015 white paper, "Marketplace of change: Automobile insurance in the era of autonomous ve- hicles." The paper's authors indicate there is a seven- to 15-per-cent lower claim frequency in driver- less cars with front-crash preven- tion technology, which means when the car detected a collision was likely when the brakes were applied automatically. Arguments related to crashes involving driverless vehicles are likely to include who or what was in control of the vehicle at the time of the crash and who or what ought to have been in con- trol of the vehicle at the time of the crash, adds Love. Personal injury lawyers will need to be more diversified, adding medical malpractice, oc- cupier liability, product liability, class action and brokerage liabil- ity to their area of concentration, he says. The potential of reduced claims will mean less work for lawyers, says Gluckstein. He says he's already noticed a reduction of injury claims in auto acci- dents in Ontario last year from when he started practising in 1999, with a drop to 60,000 from 100,000. But Gluckstein says even if there are fewer claims due to driver error expected, there will undoubtedly be claims against manufacturers, related to the vehicles and their components. Driverless vehicles are being equipped with recording devic- es, much like the black boxes on airplanes, providing additional information related to accidents. Gluckstein foresees insur- ance companies defending the driver, and looking to place the fault on the technology com- pany related to the software or hardware. All that is expected to lead to more complex litigation adding issues such as product liability to traditional accident claims, he says. With these shifts could come changes for accident victims, who have seen an erosion of ac- cident benefits in Ontario in recent years, says Jason Katz, a personal injury lawyer with Singer Kwinter in Toronto. If manufacturers and automak- ers are drawn into legal action, he says, those injured in crashes may well see larger awards. He also says that could mean more insurance money available to the injured party. "If we ever reach a point in time where the driver is not op- erating a vehicle at all . . . then the risks change completely," says Katz. "I mean my phone still breaks every day. So for me to think these cars are all going to work perfectly and seamlessly on the road with each other, the map that would have to be drawn out for that to occur is just mind-boggling." The focus in a driverless- vehicle crash will no longer be on the driver, he says, but rather the vehicle and its safety rat- ing. There is also the potential to involve the municipality that designed the network of roads to allow for driverless vehicles, he says. "I anticipate that there will have to be a heavily regulated framework in place so that the number of claims, especially in the early . . . years, don't com- pletely destroy these compa- nies," says Katz. "As these autonomous cars get rolled out into society, you're still going to have a lot of vehicles being driven by humans and the mix between drivers and the cars and driverless cars. There is still going to be driver error and there is still going to be move- ments and actions made by the human driver that the driverless cars, I assume, can't anticipate." Vancouver litigator Mark Virgin, whose practice focus- es primarily on insurance, is watching closely in anticipation of the impact of the new technol- ogy both to his practice and the law. He predicts work will shift from automobile insurance to include product liability and cy- bersecurity. While the legal profession is likely to see some dramatic changes in this area requiring lawyers to be responsive, Virgin says there will still be a demand for sharp minds and advocacy skills in insurance law. He also foresees changes to highway traffic acts and driver manuals to accommodate im- plementation of the new tech- nology. "Change is happening so rapidly and there are so many things that are going to have to be considered. I think it's going to be a monumental undertak- ing," he says. LT FOCUS Charles Gluckstein predicts there will be fewer collisions for drivers once self- driving vehicles hit the roads, and this will impact lawyers who work in fields such as personal injury. Every time you refer a client to our firm, you are putting your reputation on the line. It is all about trust well placed. TRUST Thomson, Rogers Lawyers YOUR ADVANTAGE, in and out of the courtroom. TF: 1.888.223.0448 T: 416.868.3100 www.thomsonrogers.com Since 1936 Thomson, Rogers has built a strong, trusting, and collegial relationship with hundreds of lawyers across the province. As a law firm specializing in civil litigation, we have a record of accomplishment second to none. With a group of 30 litigators and a support staff of over 100 people, we have the resources to achieve the best possible result for your client. We welcome the chance to speak or meet with you about any potential referral. We look forward to creating a solid relationship with you that will benefit the clients we serve. DAVID PAYNE | DAVID MACDONALD | MICHAEL BENNETT Untitled-1 1 2017-01-10 12:25 PM

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