Since the September 2010 changes requiring a family member who provides attendant care services to demonstrate an economic loss in providing care in order to be eligible for attendant care benefits, lawyers for injured people have been advocating for a broad interpretation to be adopted for the term economic loss.

Plaintiff’s counsel can now also rely on a recent case, Deol v Gore Mutual, where Arbitrator Wilson confirmed that economic loss is any economic loss of the care provider regardless of how minimal it may be.

In this case the insurance company attempted to argue that Mrs. Deol could not have been performing the care to her husband given the hours she worked.  However, her T4 demonstrated a lower income as well as a ROE from a second job indicating that she stopped working at that job due to stress and illness of her husband.