Previously in the last few months, we announced 2 trial wins against ICBC on behalf of our clients.
We are very pleased and proud to announce another win for our client at trial against ICBC.
Our client was 31 years-old who suffered chronic soft tissue injuries and depression as a result of 2 motor vehicle accidents. Previously, she suffered soft tissue injuries in 10 motor vehicle accidents when she was a teenager and in her early 20s. At the time that these collisions occurred, she continued to have neck and low back pain from these prior accidents. These symptoms, however, were relatively minor and they did not impact her life in any meaningful way. She was an extremely active individual who regularly enjoyed scuba diving and other forms of physical exercise. She was also working in the insurance field without any limitations.
Our client was diligent with her rehabilitation. She made every effort to recover. Despite this, her injuries remained chronic. Always a hard worker, she continued to work full-time which became more difficult as time passed. Eventually, she was forced to make a decision on how she could continue working. She decided to use her sick bank and vacation days to shorten her work week in order to manage her pain levels. The medical experts were of the opinion that her injuries were chronic and that they had a direct impact on her ability to return to full-time work after completing her second maternity leave. She was considered by the experts to be credible and her symptoms were consistent with the conditions she suffered from.
In the Reasons for Judgment, the trial judge awarded our client $423,915.00 in damages.
We are also happy to announce that the trial award was significantly more than ICBC’s offer to settle made before the trial. The trial award also exceeded our pre-trial offer to settle which will allow us to argue for punishment and double costs against ICBC for rejecting our reasonable and settlement offer and unnecessarily proceeding to trial.
This judgment is unfortunately another example of the trend of ICBC low settlement offers in 2020 and wasted unnecessary trial costs.
Low ICBC settlement offers have been a consistent trend especially through 2020 as noted in our previous blog posts and it appears to be continuing into 2021 so far…