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VICTORIA — The Insurance Corp. of B.C. says its financial picture is improving four months after it put a cap on pain and suffering claims for minor injuries in car crashes.

ICBC CEO Nicolas Jimenez said preliminary figures show the corporation on track to meet its financial targets for the year, which call for a small loss after two years of huge losses.

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“It is early,” Jimenez said Tuesday. “We have a sense of what we’re seeing, but also enough judgment to say let’s not get excited too early.”

The number of people hiring personal injury lawyers has dropped significantly. Roughly 80 per cent of all crash claims are being directed away from the courts and to a new resolution tribunal. And motorists in a crash are successfully accessing a host of improved medical benefits offered by ICBC, said Jimenez.

ICBC lost almost $2.5 billion in the past two years as claims, legal fees and repair costs skyrocketed. The B.C. government intervened on April 1 to set a $5,500 cap on pain and suffering claims for minor injuries. The cap is supposed to save ICBC $1 billion this fiscal year and stabilize the Crown auto corporation’s finances to a $50-million loss in 2019-20.