Renn A. Holness is a gifted lawyer and author to over 1000 legal blog articles. Married father of two daughters, son of a neurosurgeon and founder of Holness and Small Law Group

Injury Caps for Pain and Suffering a Loser for Quality of Life in BC

Proposed Changes to Awards for Pain and Suffering in British Columbia For injury victims of car accidents, the NDP government is planning to legislate a $5,500 cap on injury claims for pain and suffering starting in 2019. This will destroy the gains injury victims have made over reckless culprits, bad drivers and highway offenders. Allowing the current…

$418,000 Injury Award for Loss of Housekeeping Capacity Upheld

In this precedent changing personal injury Court of Appeal decision, the injury claimant, struck by another vehicle on the passenger side where she was seated, was awarded $1,782,068, including  $418,000 for loss of housekeeping capacity at trial. We focus on this exciting new statement from the court of appeal embracing this claim for loss of housekeeping capacity…

Runaway Snowmobile Blamed for Serious Injury

This pedestrian suffered serious injuries when he was struck by a runaway snowmobile. The snowmobile operator had been thrown off the machine and the snowmobile sped one kilometre across open terrain before striking the claimant (Passerin v. Webb,2018 BCSC 289). The snowmobiler was not using the the tether cord which would have automatically shut off…

ICBC Ordered to Pay Claimant’s Administration Fee…Again

ICBC continues to show a lack of respect to the court and to claimants  by refusing to pay a law society trust administration fee.  The auto insurance monopoly ICBC, wanting total control over the claim process, has ignored the ongoing orders and directions of the Supreme Court. ICBC employs many lawyers to assist ICBC adjusters…

Brain Injury Case Appeal Dismissed as Fact Driven

A car accident injury claimant is entitled to appeal a Supreme Court decision to the Court of Appeal. However, as shown in our case study, absent a palpable and overriding error affecting the trial judge’s assessment of the facts, the Appeal Court will not interfere with a finding of fact or an inference based on those facts.…

ICBC Claims Settlement Tips and Advice

The first tip, the ICBC adjuster works for ICBC not the injured claimant. ICBC does not assign claimants their own advocates after a car accident.  No one at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, ICBC, will look out for the claimants best interests when it comes to settling an injury case. Second tip for ICBC injury…

ICBC Allowed to Deny and Admit Liability for Same Car Accident

The Court of Appeal has ruled that admitting liability and settling a lawsuit but also denying liability in another lawsuit for the same car accident is not an abuse of process. (Glover v. Leakey,2018 BCCA 56) This case involved a car accident in which two lawsuits were commenced by different occupants. In one lawsuit ICBC admitted their…

Future Care Injury Award Reduced for Public Funding

The amount awarded for cost of future care can be adjusted up or down to take into account the availability of other benefits. In this Court of Appeal decision the court reaffirms this principle as it relates to the likelihood of continued publicly funded home care from Alberta Health Services (AHS). The injury claimant was involved…