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
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
The train conductor was negligent for colliding with a van because he failed to notice that the signal lights had not been flashing before the train entered the crossing. The claimant was seriously injured in the accident and had no memory of the events. The claimant pleaded guilty to a charge under s. 144 of the Motor Vehicle…
Talk to anyone affected by injury caps and they will tell you their quality of life has significantly decreased because they have no access to legal advice or recommendations for adequate care and treatment. When a person has been injured thru no fault of their own, our law has always allowed an innocent victim to be put back financially…
The importance of having a lawyer to assist litigants in Supreme Court as been reaffirmed by the Court of Appeal. In this barking dog nuisance case the appellant had up to 80 dogs on her property as part of a dog rescue business. Neighbours complained and the court ordered a permanent prohibitive injunction including limiting the…
In this car accident personal injury case the claim for past loss of earning capacity was dismissed as speculative. Even though the trial judge used the wrong and higher standard of balance of probability, the Court of Appeal still dismissed the appeal. (Rousta v. MacKay,2018 BCCA 29). The ICBC claimant was driving on Taylor Way…
This personal injury claimant was found 50% at fault for a car accident. The issue on this court application was whether the claimant should also recover only 50% of his legal costs.(Elima v. Dhaliwal,2018 BCSC 115). This personal injury lawsuit relates to a a motor vehicle accident which occurred at the intersection of Steveston Highway and Coppersmith…