Bill 103 explained in plain English
Personal Injury and Accident Victims Protection Act, 2017
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
This Ontario bill amends the Law Society Act and Solicitors Act to regulate referral fees, client consent for referrals, advertising, and contingency fee agreements for personal injury claims.
This bill, titled the Personal Injury and Accident Victims Protection Act, 2017, proposes changes to the Law Society Act and the Solicitors Act in Ontario. It aims to regulate how legal professionals handle personal injury claims. Key changes include prohibiting referral fees for personal injury cases, requiring client consent for referrals, and mandating approval from the Law Society of Upper Canada for advertisements related to personal injury legal services. The bill also sets new rules for fee agreements, requiring clear disclosure of how fees are calculated and capping contingency fees for personal injury cases at 15% of the recovered amount. If a lawyer exceeds this cap, they must reimburse the client. These changes are intended to protect individuals involved in personal injury claims.
- Amends the Law Society Act to define 'personal injury claim'.
- Prohibits lawyers (licensees) from soliciting, accepting, or paying referral fees for personal injury claims.
- Requires lawyers to obtain express written consent from a client before referring them to another lawyer for a personal injury claim, while maintaining client confidentiality.
- Requires lawyers to get approval from the Law Society of Upper Canada for any advertisements offering legal representation for personal injury claims.
- Amends the Solicitors Act to require that fee agreements clearly and prominently disclose how legal fees are calculated.
- Limits the total amount a solicitor can receive for representing a client in a personal injury case under a contingency fee agreement to a maximum of 15% of the recovered amount.
- Requires solicitors to reimburse clients for any amounts received over the 15% cap in contingency fee agreements for personal injury cases.
- Specifies that the new rules for contingency fee agreements apply to agreements entered into on or after the date the bill receives Royal Assent.
- Lawyers (licensees) in Ontario who handle personal injury claims.
- Clients involved in personal injury claims in Ontario.
- The Law Society of Upper Canada (now Law Society of Ontario).
- Lawyers are prohibited from soliciting, accepting, or paying referral fees for personal injury claims.
- Lawyers must obtain written consent from clients before referring them for personal injury claims.
- Lawyers must maintain client confidentiality when referring cases.
- Lawyers must submit advertisements for personal injury claims to the Law Society for approval.
- Fee agreements must clearly disclose how fees are calculated.
- Contingency fees for personal injury claims are capped at 15% of the recovered amount.
- Clients have the right to have contingency fee agreements reviewed and potentially cancelled within 10 days.
- Clients have the right to be reimbursed for amounts paid to solicitors above the 15% cap in contingency fee agreements.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The new rules for contingency fee agreements apply to agreements entered into on or after the day the bill receives Royal Assent.
- Contingency fees for personal injury claims are limited to a maximum of 15% of the recovered amount.
- Lawyers may be required to reimburse clients if they exceed the 15% contingency fee cap.
- Contravention of new provisions related to personal injury claims can result in a fine of up to $100,000.
- Contravention of provisions regarding referral fees, consent for referrals, and advertising for personal injury claims may result in a fine of up to $100,000.
- Lawyers who receive compensation exceeding the 15% cap on contingency fees for personal injury claims must reimburse the difference to the client.
- The bill does not specify the process or criteria the Law Society of Upper Canada will use to review and approve advertisements, beyond compliance with the code of professional conduct and avoiding false or misleading statements. Section 26.4 (2) of the Law Society Act refers to by-laws for approval procedures, which are not included in this bill text.
- The bill does not define 'licensee' beyond the context of the Law Society Act and Solicitors Act, implying it refers to individuals licensed by the Law Society of Ontario.
Introduces a definition for 'personal injury claim' and adds new rules prohibiting referral fees, requiring client consent for referrals, and mandating approval for advertising related to personal injury claims. It also establishes penalties for contravening these provisions.
Source: Section 1, Section 2, Section 3, Section 4
Requires fee agreements to clearly disclose how remuneration is calculated. It also introduces new rules limiting contingency fees for personal injury claims to 15% of the recovered amount and requiring reimbursement if this limit is exceeded.
Source: Section 6, Section 7
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced