Why do Adjusters Keep Log Notes?
In my years of working in and around insurance claims, both from a management perspective and later from a legal one, I have found myself wondering why adjusters keep log notes on accident benefits and tort claims Everyone treated them as essential and required. From a litigation point of view, lawyers only hear about log notes when Applicant’s counsel wants to forward a claim of bad faith, but do they have other uses and requirements? Adjusters are trained to write them, managers review them, lawyers ask for them, and tribunals order their production. But what law, rule, or regulation actually requires an insurer to create and maintain them That question stayed with me for years, and it is what drove the research that follows.
What Exactly is a Log Note?
Before turning to the regulatory framework, it helps to understand exactly what a log note is and why adjusters have relied on them for decades. A log note is a written entry created by an adjuster to record an action taken on a claim. It usually includes the date, time, and author, along with a description of the activity, the substance of communications, the explanations provided to the claimant, and the adjusters reasoning. These notes are a day to day record of how a claim progresses. They allow adjusters to track decisions, maintain continuity when files change hands, provide supervisors with an overview of the claim, and create a contemporaneous record that supports the insurers position if the claim is later disputed. In many ways, log notes are the backbone of the claims file.
Industry Standards and Documentation Expectations
Professional industry bodies across Canada, such as the Insurance Institute of Canada and provincial adjusting regulators, view thorough and accurate claim-file documentation as essential to competent and ethical adjusting. For example, the ChAD guidance states that “proper record keeping of claim files is an obligation for claims adjusters” and that notes must “document discussions, conversations, actions carried out and advice given to claimants” and be “complete and objective.”[1] At the same time, the CIAA website describes its role as “setting standards for professional and ethical claims handling,” thereby reinforcing the expectation that adjusters maintain clear and comprehensive written records.[2] In the broader Canadian insurance industry, this expectation is widely recognized, “If it’s not documented in the file, it doesn’t exist.”[3]
Are Log Notes Required Under Ontario Insurance Law?
With that context in mind, we can examine the regulatory landscape. At first glance, the Insurance Act nor the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, (the SABS), do not contain a clause explicitly stating that insurers must maintain log notes or a claims diary. The SABS governs accident benefits for motor vehicle collisions in Ontario and is very detailed in its prescriptions, particularly around forms, timelines, and benefit criteria. But it is silent about internal documentation practices.
FSRA Expectations and the Fair Treatment of Customers
Looking beyond the SABS and considering the broader frameworks that govern claims handling in Ontario, the picture changes dramatically. The expectations of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA[4]), the mandatory Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices Rule (known as the UDAP Rule[5]), the Rules and practices of the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT[6]), industry norms, and case law all point toward a clear and unavoidable conclusion: detailed, contemporaneous documentation is effectively mandatory.
FSRA, which replaced the former Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), supervises insurers using the national Fair Treatment of Customers guidance[7] developed by the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) and the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations (CISRO). These national bodies set conduct expectations for insurers across Canada, and FSRA has adopted their guidance as the benchmark for good market conduct. The guidance requires insurers to maintain records that demonstrate fairness, timeliness, accuracy, and transparency in claims handling. Insurers must be able to show the basis for their decisions, the steps they took to investigate the claim, the communications provided to the claimant, and the reasons supporting every conclusion. These expectations cannot be met without a detailed, chronological record kept while the claim is being handled.
The UDAP Rule and Evidence of Fair Claims Handling
The UDAP Rule, which is binding law under the Insurance Act[8], reinforces this requirement by prohibiting a range of unfair claims practices. These include unreasonable delay, arbitrary decision making, and failure to provide claimants with clear, timely, and comprehensive information about their claims. If challenged by FSRA or by a claimant at the LAT, an insurer must be able to produce detailed evidence of what it did, when it did it, and why it acted as it did. Without contemporaneous notes documenting these actions and decisions, the insurer cannot prove that it complied with the UDAP Rule or that its handling of the claim was reasonable or fair.
LAT Production Requirements for Accident Benefits Files
LAT practice adds further weight. The LAT is the tribunal responsible for hearing SABS disputes, and its document production rules for accident benefits cases explicitly require insurers to disclose the complete accident benefits file, including the adjusters log notes, subject only to valid claims of privilege. This requirement presumes the existence of log notes as a standard part of the claims file. LAT adjudicators rely heavily on these notes when assessing a claim, using them to understand the adjusters actions, reasoning, and compliance with statutory timelines. An absence of such notes would not only be unusual but would undermine the insurers credibility and hinder the tribunal’s ability to fully evaluate the claim.
Why Alternatives to Log Notes Don’t Work
The importance of contemporaneous documentation becomes even clearer when considering whether insurers could realistically comply with their obligations without keeping log notes. Several potential alternatives have been raised over the years. Some suggest that insurers could rely exclusively on outgoing letters or emails. But while correspondence shows what was communicated, it reveals nothing about what the adjuster did internally, what information was reviewed, or why decisions were made. Others point to automated system timestamps or task lists generated by claims management software. These can show when certain actions occurred, but they are not substantive records and cannot capture the adjusters reasoning, communications, or explanations to the claimant.
Another proposed alternative is reliance on internal guidelines or procedures. But tribunals and regulators evaluate what actually occurred on a specific claim, not what the insurers policies say should have occurred. Adjuster memory is even less reliable. Memories fade, adjusters change jobs, and uncorroborated testimony is easily challenged and often viewed with skepticism. Finally, after the fact summaries cannot replace contemporaneous notes. They are not made in real time, are influenced by hindsight, and are often incomplete or self-serving, making them unreliable in legal or regulatory proceedings.
None of these alternatives withstand examination. None allow an insurer to demonstrate fair treatment, prove compliance with SABS timelines, show its reasoning on a decision, satisfy an FSRA compliance review, or defend itself at the LAT. Only contemporaneous claim file notes accomplish all of these requirements. To paraphrase a concept often used within the legal community, the process must not only be fair, but it must be seen to be fair.
The Practical Reality: Log Notes Are Mandatory
Looking back on my own experience, a bit of research finally answered the question that had lingered for years. While no statute uses the magic words “log notes”, they must be kept, the combined effect of legislative duties, regulatory expectations, tribunal practice, industry norms, and case law makes them indispensable. Insurers must be able to show what they did, when they did it, and why. Without those records, fairness cannot be demonstrated, compliance cannot be proven, and credibility cannot be maintained.
So the next time someone asks whether log notes are required, the practical answer is a simple yes, because nothing else meets the standard.
[1] Chambre de l’assurance de dommages https://chad.ca/en/professional-practice/record-keeping-and-notes-in-client-records/
[2] CIAA https://www.ciaa-adjusters.ca/
[3]Claims Journal https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2014/02/20/244768.htm
[5]https://www.fsrao.ca/industry/insurance-sector/unfair-or-deceptive-acts-or-practices-udap-rule
[6]https://tribunalsontario.ca/documents/lat/LAT-Rules_2024.html
[7]https://www.fsrao.ca/regulation/guidance/fair-treatment-customers-insurance
[8]Section 440 of the Insurance Act gives the regulator (Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, FSRA) authority to prescribe “any action or failure to act” that constitutes an unfair or deceptive act or practice.
