Jevco pays non-earner benefit despite winning Minor Injury Guideline dispute
Jevco Insurance paid a non-earner benefit to an Ontario accident victim even after successfully arguing the claim fell under the Minor Injury Guideline, a rare outcome that highlights how insurers sometimes absorb costs rather than litigate to the limit.
What happened
A recent Ontario auto insurance dispute saw Jevco Insurance push back on a claimant's attempt to remove their injuries from the Minor Injury Guideline (MIG), and the insurer won that fight. Despite prevailing on the MIG classification, Jevco still issued a non-earner benefit payment to the claimant, rather than withholding the benefit on the basis of the MIG cap.
What it means for consumers
For accident victims in Ontario, the ruling reinforces that winning a MIG exclusion is not a guaranteed path to broader benefits. Insurers retain discretion in how they settle claims, and some will fund non-earner benefits voluntarily even when they are not strictly required to. Policyholders and claimants should not assume that a successful MIG challenge automatically unlocks the full range of income-replacement or non-earner entitlements.
What it means for premiums
No direct premium change has been announced.
Coverage considerations
The case illustrates the tension between the MIG's $5,000 treatment cap and the separate entitlement framework for non-earner benefits, which is available to people who are unemployed, retired, or otherwise not working at the time of the collision. Even when an injury is firmly placed inside the MIG, non-earner benefits remain a distinct coverage category, and the decision to pay them sits with the insurer's adjuster and claims strategy. For consumers, this means reading an auto policy carefully for both MIG treatment limits and non-earner eligibility clauses, since the two can move independently.