In the wake of this year’s spate of wild (and wildly destructive) weather, including July 8th’s record-breaking torrential deluge that flooded swathes of the city, crippling transit, leaving thousands without power for days, and which will ultimately cost upwards of $600 million in property damage, there are a number of questions of a legal nature that crop up. These pertain to a wide variety of areas, including environmental and insurance law, as well as broader legal frameworks that address (or, in many cases, don’t) issues such as climate change.
A simple search in our catalogue for the term “climate change” (using the advanced search to limit a subject search to Osgoode-only) yields 89 results for Osgoode alone, including a recent publication on local climate change law. Perhaps somebody should let Norm Kelly (the former Chair of the Parks and Environment Committee) know about it.
One of the enduring images from the flood was from a lawyer’s Ferrari submerged in a downtown underpass. It is worth noting that the lawyer was quoted in the Toronto Star as saying “that’s what insurance companies are for”. While it is true that these storms lead to huge numbers of claims, it is also true that there will likely be a corresponding increase in rates. Especially if you drive a Ferrari. We have no shortage of books pertaining to all areas of insurance law, including property insurance, insurance companies, and plain old insurance law.