Good news for personal injury claimants in Victoria, Vancouver and the rest of the Province. If a personal injury case in British Columbia is filed under Fast Track , the Civil Rules limit the under oath examination of the claimant to two hours. The following case of (Henneberry v. Humber, 2014 BCSC 1133 ) stands for the proposition that if ICBC or any other party wastes time asking questions of marginally relevance or elicit too much evidence that will not be admissible at trial the court will not afford them more time.
The Judge when referring to the submissions of the defendant asked why civil litigators wanted everything handed to them on a platter before they got to trial. Rue 15-1(11) clearly says that in a fast track action the examinations for discovery of a party of record must not exceed 2 hours, unless the court otherwise orders or parties consent.
The defendant indicated that is was a complicated case, liability was in issue, and the plaintiff refused to sign a notice to admit certain facts which could have shortened the length of this examination for discovery. However, the judge reviewed the first discovery transcript and found many instances where counsel for the defendant squandered the opportunity to fully take advantage of the two-hour limit.
As the judge concludes at paragraph 6,… I am satisfied that there was far too much time spent pursuing unproductive trains of inquiry. As a result, the two-hour limitation passed by without counsel for the defendant being able to deal with all the issues with which they wanted to deal.
The judge refused to provide the defendant with any further time for examinations for discovery.
Posted by Vancouver Personal Injury Lawyer Mr. Renn A. Holness, B.A. LL.B. – Serving all of BC