Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 45 for taking over whenever something unexpected or serious arose and who would be liable if they did not step in. He points to the ever-advancing safety features in cars on the road today, and says all of those have disclaimers that make it clear they do not abdicate the driver of responsibility. They might be excellent tools in reducing accidents, but Ambridge says there is still a role for personal injury lawyers in defending accident vic- tims against the insurance company that would allege the safety features must not have been used properly. This would carry over to semi-autonomous cars, where insurance defence lawyers would try to claim the passenger's actions — or lack of actions — caused the accident. "If there is a way for the passenger to affect the vehicle and take control of it in any way, there's always the possibility to allocate 100-per-cent of liability toward that person — which really means that our current framework of insurance laws might actually stay almost the same, or at least this part of it," Ambridge says, adding there will always be a lawyer on the insurance side trying to defend the company from paying out for the accident. Parker says if a protocol is introduced and implementation begins, his firm would look into it, "but it has to make sense from a business standpoint." Litwiniuk says it's understandable that firms are taking that approach, but he wants to be ahead of the game. "When you're good at something, you're making money at it, you're really focused on that, you talk about these things in the abstract, but really thinking about them and what to do about them, it's hard to divert resources within any business to really focus on something like this," he says. "Unfortunately, I think what happens with things like this over and over, whenever there's a disruptive technology, even though people can see it coming and get a vague idea what it's going to look like, when it actually happens, it seems like most people are taken by surprise." While he doesn't expect seismic shifts overnight, Litwiniuk says his firm is taking the approach that the advent of more autono- mous vehicles, and a corresponding drop in personal injury files, is inevitable. "Computers ultimately will do a better job of driving vehicles than humans do. Right now you have computer autopilot flying planes and they do a pretty great job of it," he says, so "let's prepare for it, let's get ready for it, and look at the other ways we can still be of benefit for the general public because that's what lawyers are here for. "The lawyers who start thinking about that and are ahead of the curve on that are going to be the ones who can start doing work in those areas and start capitalizing on those opportunities," he says, noting the firms that have expertise in personal injury probably have less to worry about than firms that "dabble." "Yes, some areas will diminish, but other areas may arise out of this that we haven't even thought of." Ambridge expects results of the Ontario government's pilot program — including research into the effects of self-driving cars on different issues, such as economics and safety — some time this year. LEADERS IN FUTURE CARE ANALYSIS AND COSTING OUR REGULATED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS ARE SPECIFICALLY CREDENTIALED IN THE AREA OF LIFE CARE PLANNING. CBAFUTURECARE.COM 1.866.314.7335 LEARN MORE HERE: ntitled-3 1 2017-01-11 11:50 AM What do your clients need? The means to move on. Guaranteed ™ . Baxter Structures customizes personal injury settlements into tax-free annuities that can help your clients be secure for life. Need more information? Contact us at 1 800 387 1686 or baxterstructures.com Kyla A. Baxter, CSSC PRESIDENT, BAXTER STRUCTURES ntitled-5 1 2016-10-25 3:42 PM

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