Car Insurance in New Brunswick

Lawzee! Is there, like, lots of traffic in New Brunswick, or what.

The insurance companies claim it's because of the overwhelming amounts of law suits.

These rates are for new drivers and the thing that bugs me the most is that boys pay double to what girls do. That's just not right!

My insurance rates are reasonable because I have a spotless record and have been driving for 24 years, but these kids just starting out don't stand a chance in buying their own car :-(

Humpf! Sounds like your insurance companies are overdue a good, thourough audit. Now, I'm kind of a free trade person, but when a government requires insurance, it becomes the government's responsibility to insure fairness. Doesn't it?

Good morningm Montana.

Good Morning to you Roger :-)

The government is actually taking a stand on the issue this year and is forcing them to go down some, but they're talking 10% to 20% which is hardly enough.

lemme tell you about those lawsuits someday. it's something i know a bit about.

If they justify a $3000.00 premium, I know where I'm having my next accident!

Oh, wait, the payout is in Canadian dollars, huh? Forget about it.

Roger, are you familiar with the Michigan level of no-fault benefits? The benefits in many Canadian provinces are similar. The lawsuits are on top of that. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario are grappling with the effects of U.S.-style litigation entering our markets.

No I'm not, and I was just kidding. I wouldn't really drive to Canada just to have a car wreck.

The fraud rings for faking accidents in no-fault jurisdictions are as bad as they are in New Jersey and New York. They just cracked a huge one in New Jersey. Those rings seriously run up the cost of premiums for the rest of us.

Montana, the longer you wait to add your son to your coverage, the higher his initial premium will likely be. It varies a bit from province to province, but generally, adding him now will decrease his costs in the long run. A lot of people around here don't let their kids drive their cars until the kids can afford to pay the additional premium cost of adding them to the policy. It's certainly one way of making the new driver aware of some of the costs.

this was in the NYTimes about a week ago, about a New York gang :

Investigators Say Fraud Ring Staged Thousands of Crashes
By PATRICK HEALY


AUPPAUGE, N.Y., Aug. 12 ?- Law-enforcement officials said today that they had cracked an insurance-fraud ring that staged thousands of car accidents and then employed its own network of doctors, acupuncture therapists and fake medical clinics to bilk an insurance company out of $48 million.

Prosecutors and insurance experts said the ring was the largest of its kind ever broken in New York State. A grand jury on Long Island has issued 567 indictments, 86 of which were made public at a news conference here today. Those indicted included doctors, psychiatrists, chiropractors, dentists and nearly 20 bogus health-care clinics that were set up as part of the scheme to defraud State Farm Insurance, the Suffolk County district attorney, Thomas J. Spota, said.

"It's one of the biggest busts in the nation in terms of its breadth, its scope and the dollars involved," said Robert Hartwig, the chief economist of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry group. "We're talking about bringing down an entire network. It's analogous to bringing down a drug kingpin."

Mr. Spota said the ring used "runners" and "crash dummies" in cars that would cut in front of other cars, often driven by women with children or by elderly people, slam on the brakes, and cause a crash. The authorities said the investigation dates to 2001, when they received word from insurers who noticed the same names were popping up over and over on insurance claims. One runner was involved with about 1,000 accidents.

Although tales of insurance fraud are well known in New York, Suffolk County investigators and prosecutors said this network, which traces its roots to the heavily Russian Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, was especially large and complex.

Mr. Spota would not link the series of frauds to Russian organized crime, but an insurance-fraud lawyer familiar with the case said the fingerprints of organized crime appeared to be all over it. Some profits from the frauds were channeled to businesses in Russia, while others were funneled into a Swiss bank account and withdrawn by Russian citizens, the authorities said.

Insurance fraud in New York began to skyrocket in 2001, when criminal groups, chased from other parts of the country, including New Jersey, realized they could easily exploit New York's system, Mr. Hartwig said. Under the state's no-fault insurance laws, anyone injured in a car accident can receive up to $50,000 for medical care.

"New York State has the biggest problems in the nation today with auto insurance fraud," Mr. Hartwig said. "It's the biggest and last open checkbook in America today. It's a magnet for this kind of abuse."

The fraud, in turn, is responsible for driving up auto insurance premiums in New York State, and is expected to cost drivers $432 million this year, Mr. Hartwig said. An earlier study by the Insurance Research Council found that insurance fraud added $177 annually to each New York driver's insurance bill.

The frauds began with accidents in which a "runner" would recruit friends, relatives or strangers, promising them $500 apiece for participating. The runner would load them into an inexpensive sturdy American car ?- usually an aging Cadillac or Lincoln ?- and drive onto a highway, then veer in front of an unsuspecting driver to cause an accident, usually a fender bender. The accidents were staged mainly in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and Westchester.

In the confusion, the driver would dart from the car and be ferried away in another automobile, leaving someone else to pose as the driver, in order to to avoid being connected to a string of accidents. Sometimes, the getaway car would disgorge people who would later claim to have been in the accident, said Bob Clifford, a spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney.

The passengers then went to one of several counterfeit medical clinics in Brooklyn and Queens that had been set up specifically to treat them, prosecutors said. The clinic management filed no-fault insurance claims and ordered a barrage of tests and procedures, sometimes performing them and sometimes not, the prosecutors charged.

The clinics were financed by lawyers, accountants and other investors, though doctors are listed as the owners. Lawyers whom prosecutors said were aware that the claims were false often called the insurance companies and threatened to file suits if the claims were not paid.

Each passenger could bring in $50,000, officials said. According to Peter Smith, a Suffolk County assistant district attorney who investigated the ring, runners received $1,500 per "patient" while the "crash dummies" received up to $500 per crash. The lawyers who pressed the claims reaped one-third of the profits, and the clinic managers received another third.

Some of the passengers had been in 30 or 40 accidents, though prosecutors said that one man who was indicted, Aleksandr Tarashchansky, had orchestrated as many as 1,000. Mr. Tarashchansky, speaking in halting English, referred questions about the charges to his son, who in turn referred them to Mr. Tarashchansky's lawyer, who could not be reached for comment.

Prosecutors said Mr. Tarashchansky carried a small book that contained the names of 300 doctors, clinics and other contacts.

Though Brooklyn is their nucleus, the insurance-fraud networks are now starting to move upstate, said Gregory V. Serio, the state superintendent of insurance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/13/nyregion/13INSU.html?ex=1061352000&en=ed14ac713245a2fd&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

soooooo, roger - people really do come here to have accidents. it's a big reality in my job. a big part of almost every work day for me.

Wow! Beth, I didn't think it was that bad. I didn't realize that it was a huge crime ring. I think it's terrible that we all have to suffer because of other people's greed. My son only has his permit right now, so he doesn't need to be insured until next year when he gets his license. It sure makes things hard for a responsible young person to try and get ahead in life :-(

I was at a meeting this morning, about some new legislation we're going to try in this province to see if we can make a dent in the rings. Right now it just sounds like more paperwork for me. : (

Hang in there Beth ;-)