When making an offer to settle a personal injury case with ICBC it is important serve the offer to settle on all parties of record. In BC Personal injury cases there are usually two main claims that need to be settled: tort and Part VII. The tort claim is the negligence claim against the at fault driver and the Part VII claim is the one against ICBC for accident benefits.
In Bronson v. Hewitt, 2011 BCSC 482 because the offer was not delivered to all parties of record, none of the offers were considered an “offer to settle” as defined in Rule 9-1(1). Lawyers would be well advised to ensure that the language of their offers complies precisely with Rule 9-1 to avoid any possibility of their offers being found deficient, according to the court. In this case, the offer was made just days after the new rule came into effect.
Rule 9-1(c)(ii) mandates that offers to settle be served on all parties of record and does not contemplate the Court embarking on a case by case investigation as to the impact of non-compliance. The Court found that the failure to deliver the offers to settle to all parties of record is fatal and the offers are not offers to settle as defined in Rule 9-1 and the provisions of Rule 9-1 are not engaged.
For more information about offers to settle watch our short video about without prejudice offers to settle with ICBC:
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