What Happened…
Christa is a York University (referred to as "York") Alumni. She graduated with a Specialized Honours Degree in 1992. After viewing the TD Meloche Monnex ad on the York University Alumni website promising exceptional client service and personalized client care, she obtained automobile insurance as an Alumni member. Subsequent to her purchasing auto insurance with TD Meloche Monnex (referred to as "TD"), this ad was revised to promise a superior claims process in addition to the above benefits. To make a long story short, according to Christa’s experience with TD Meloche Monnex, she did not benefit from any of these alleged claims and benefits!
Christa was involved in two serious motor vehicle accidents on September 16, 2005 and February 10, 2006 respectively. Both motor vehicle accidents resulted from her vehicle being rear ended while stopped in traffic by vehicles traveling at an excessive rate of speed on highway 401. According to numerous medical professionals, Christa sustained numerous significant injuries, including but not limited to the following:
- Traumatic brain injury
- Movement Disorder (Cervical Dystonia)
- Cognitive impairments
- Speech and language difficulties
- Physical and psychological injuries
- Chronic Pain
- Seizure Disorder
As a result of these two MVAs, Christa has undergone three surgeries, and her surgeon advised that she will require annual surgeries for the rest of her life to address just one of her injuries.
Due to the significant and serious nature of Christa’s ongoing injuries arising from the above-noted accidents, she has not been able to return to her employment, which was her one true passion. Prior to these accidents she was employed as a Pharmaceutical, Medical and Scientific Writer. Her career is in a niche market that is comprised of only a handful of writers in this field due to its specialized technical nature. Christa was at the top of her field prior to the above-noted MVAs, which allowed her to enjoy a lucrative and fulfilling career. She demonstrated tremendous talent and passion for her work, which ultimately led her to identify her career as "my core reason for being" since she was able to have a significant impact on helping people. The impact of her injuries have also significantly adversely affected Christa’s quality of life, her ability to perform her activities of daily living, her personal care, and her care giving abilities for her twin boys (who were approximately one year old at the time of the first MVA).
This website will demonstrate that York failed to protect the best interest of its alumni by soliciting business for TD, an insurer displaying negligent, and underhanded conduct at the expense of Christa (and one can argue potentially other York alumni). Moreover, it is Christa’s submission that the TD advertisement on the York Alumni website constitutes false and misleading advertising. Alumni have the right to know about the shoddy quality of client care and claims service provided to one of their fellow alumni, and the role that TD and York played in the horrific experience Christa had. As such, TD’s callous and deceitful conduct throughout its handling of Christa’s file needs to be exposed in order for them to be held accountable for their actions. This initiative will hopefully raise awareness in other alumni about what other unsuspecting individuals may potentially be subjected to.
Christa’s injuries are explicitly confirmed, detailed and documented in numerous medical reports written by various medical professionals. In addition, there is overwhelming medical evidence and objective findings validating her injuries. TD Meloche Monnex (referred to as "TD") and Security National Insurance Company (referred to as "Security National") have refused and/or neglected to acknowledge the significant objective findings, and specialist medical opinions, which validated the fact she sustained an acquired brain injury from both of her two MVAs. More particularly, up until her husband’s letter dated September 25, 2007 was delivered to York, TD and Security National (threatening to expose these parties for their breach of duty, and false and misleading advertising), TD and Security National made extensive efforts to deny and/or stall Christa from obtaining specialized medical treatment, rehabilitation and other intervention to mitigate her injuries (particularly her brain injury). These efforts by TD and Security National have been made in extremely bad faith by using practices that were deceitful and unfair, which have had a devastating effect on her ability to get help promptly for her brain injury. These actions left Christa in the dark about what was happening to her, and caused her to go into a severe depression respecting the future potential for her to recover from her brain injury and physical injuries. The disgraceful antics employed by these companies eventually amounted to them creating insurmountable barriers for Christa to address her injuries and get certain treatment for same (Pre-Sept.25/07).
Despite the fact that her physicians have advised that Christa needed to get immediate medical intervention to try to circumscribe the extent of her injuries, TD and Security National’s actions in withholding, denying, and/or neglecting the approval for "prompt" treatment to address her various injuries(pre-Sept.25/07), placed her in a compromised position. According to one of Christa’s physicians specializing in traumatic brain injury, "There is a very high likelihood that she will have permanent residual cognitive and emotional impairment, as well as residual pain in the sites described…". This specialist assessed Christa and noted, "It would be very challenging for her to return to her previous job. She would also not be well-suited to jobs of a more physical nature.". Essentially, these and other findings are consistent with a neuropsychologist’s contention that assessed and confirmed the adverse effects on Christa’s cognitive function and impairments arising from her brain injury. As such, TD and Security National had full knowledge of the medical documentation supporting Christa’s significant cognitive impairments and brain injury, as well as her physical injuries prior to Sept. 25/07.
Qualifications & Background of Christa’s Husband, a Former Claims Adjuster/Examiner
At this point, it would be prudent to get some information about Christa’s husband, Sandro who’s work experience and background make him extremely qualified and credible to speak about the matters respecting Christa’s horrific experience (outlined in this website). It’s important to know that Christa’s husband has extensive work experience in the insurance industry as a Claims Adjuster/Examiner for Pilot Insurance Company, York Fire & Casualty Insurance Company and Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company. In addition, he has substantial work experience as a Marketing Computer Analyst for Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company. Needless to say, he has lived and breathed in the insurance industry for 10 years, but has never seen such shoddy claims service and underhanded conduct in the claims process that has been demonstrated by TD and Security National in the handling of Christa’s file. As a result, he believes that TD and Security National exemplify the bad faith and deceitful conduct that reduces the general public’s confidence in the insurance industry, thereby giving a bad reputation to the majority of insurance companies with truly exceptional service, and exhibiting good faith through their conduct. This belief is based on the outrageous way in which Christa’s claim was handled by TD and Security National.
His credentials leading up to his career in the insurance industry included an educational background in Business Administration, Marketing, Law, and Computer studies. Subsequent to his work experience in the insurance industry, he has owned and operated an entrepreneurial business for 20 years that resulted in the publication of 20 books, which he authored. In the past 10 years, he has been working in the advertising industry specializing in the Computer Graphics field. This experience has opened his eyes to invaluable information about the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards and the Competition Act pursuant to the Competition Bureau of Canada. Based on his experience in this field, he has knowledge that it is advisable that anyone creating advertisements should become acquainted with the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards. This code contains valuable information that informs individuals, corporations, and the like about the do’s and don’ts in marketing and advertising (for more information visit www.adstandards.com). To get more information on the Competition Bureau please visit www.competitionbureau.gc.ca to view a document from the Competition Bureau pertaining to "False or Misleading Representations and Deceptive Marketing Practices". The information contained in the above-noted website should or ought to have been considered and complied with by both York, TD and Security National before they decided to advertise the services of TD Meloche Monnex to York Alumni like Christa.
