FSCO Seeks Outside Help to Address Mediation Backlog

The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), Ontario's insurance regulator, has taken steps to address a significant backlog of accident benefit claims stuck at the mediation stage of the appeals process.  

The backlog, originally reported in December 2011 in the 2011 Annual Report (Ch. 3), Office of the Auditor General of Ontario, is said to be well in excess of 9 months.  Mediations that are required to be held within 60 days by law are taking anywhere from 10-12 months to be heard.

To address the backlog, FSCO has posted an RFP for external mediation and arbitration services (RFP# OSS 00214497).  The RFP was posted on January 16, 2012 and is avaialable only through MERX™ the electronic tendering system used by the Province of Ontario.  The RFP indicates that FSCO "requires up to four dispute resolution companies to provide high volume mediation and/or arbitration services in order to eliminate its backlog of files."  The due date for the submission of proposals is February 24, 2012 at 11:00 am Toronto time.  

It is hoped that the external service providers hired will address the backlog and allow staff mediators at FSCO to tske on current files ready for mediation.  

FSCO is seeking both mediation and arbitration services because it is anticipating that reducing the mediation backlog will result an increase in the demand for arbitration services for those cases that do not settle at mediation.

There has been a fair bit written about this developing issue.  It's even caught the attention of the dispute resolution community in the U.S.  Keith Seat, a dispute resolution professional based in Rockville, Maryland posted a short piece on his January 2012 e-newsletter [here's the link: Mediation News for the 21st Century (January 2012)]. For further information and insight on this issue, you can also check out the following links:

Canadian Underwriter.ca (December 5, 2011)
Canadian Underwriter.ca (January 26, 2012)