2023 CLIA Annual Report – Message From the Chair

The 2023 CLIA Annual Report can now be found on the CLIA website. The following message is from Allan Fineblit, K.C., CLIA Board Chair as his term as Chair and Board member ends. We’d like to thank Allan for his contribution to CLIA and for being a “huge fan”.

CLIA and I have a long history together and while my term as Chair (and on the Board) will end not too long after I write this, I will remain an interested CLIA observer and a huge fan.  

It seems whenever I buy something electronic these days, I am offered an extended warranty (essentially insurance) no matter how inexpensive the item. My philosophy is never to buy insurance for losses I can handle without much pain. If my $100 coffee maker dies (as mine just did…which also, by the way, explains why this message may sound a tad “jittery”) it will annoy me, but I can manage the replacement cost without much pain. I prefer to self insure for those kinds of losses. It is cheaper in the long run and much more efficient. 

Now I can’t self insure for my law practice (my Law Society frowns on it) but even if I could, the potential loss if I mess up is definitely going to cause me some pain. So, with or without it being mandatory, I am buying E&O insurance. Lucky for me I can do that getting the best of both worlds. While I can’t self insure, collectively we can, and get all the benefits of that in price and value. CLIA does not need to make profit so the premium I pay reflects the risk I am insuring. And that my friends is why I am a fan. 

CLIA is far from perfect. There are lots of things we can do better. In fact, we have a “to do” list developed by surveying stakeholders and by our planning processes. We are not perfect but we are pretty good at what we do, and more importantly we are stroking things off the top of that “to do” list on a regular basis (OK we are also adding new ones to the bottom but you get my point!). 

This report will highlight a lot of our 2023 accomplishments, give a sneak peak at what we plan to address next on our continuous improvement agenda and of course it will give you all the numbers that reflect both financial and claims data for 2023. 

One of the things I feel we do well is govern. The current model was developed about 7 years ago and was designed to reflect modern governance principles. That means we are a small, skills-based Board and so we can be nimble (which is pretty important in an environment where things change really fast). We plan a lot, monitor regularly and try and focus on policy, not operations. That is pretty easy to do because we have a highly skilled CEO and staff in whom we have a lot of confidence. It is also easier to govern well because the Nominating Committee has done great work to identify and recruit skilled people to be on the CLIA Board. 

So, thanks to our great staff for all you have accomplished in 2023. Thanks to my colleagues on the CLIA Board for making my job really easy by coming prepared and for being feisty but collegial, and thanks to our subscribers for their support and advice. I boldly predict the future of CLIA is bright because of all of you.