An Interesting Twist on Beasley v. Barrand

The fallout from the Beasley v. Barrand decision continues. You may recall that in Beasley, the Court refused to permit expert evidence at trial from accident benefits assessors.

In Jeffrey v. Baker, [2010] O.J. No. 4415 (S.C.J.), the defendant sought to compel the plaintiff to attend at an orthopaedic IME. She had already attended at two IMEs with a physiatrist and psychiatrist, and the defendant had lost a motion in 2009 to compel two additional examinations.

Justice Quigley allowed the motion and ordered the plaintiff to attend the orthopaedic assessment. One of the reasons for allowing the IME was that prior to enactment of the new rule 53 the defendant would have been at liberty to call accident benefits assessors to give expert evidence at trial, but given the rule change this is no longer permitted, as made clear in Beasley. The Court was satisfied there was a real risk the defendant would be left without evidence to refute the plaintiff’s claims if the orthopaedic IME was not permitted.