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
This injury claimant was awarded $50,000 for pain and suffering but her claim for medical Marijuana of 3 grams a day in cream form for a period of two years at a cost of between $21,900 and $32,850 was totally dismissed (G. v. Ahn, 2016 BCSC 795). The claimant was injured in a motor vehicle accident which occurred at the intersection of…
What happens if a claimant does not accept an ICBC offer and the court awards less than the amount offered? Are you forced to accept whatever ICBC offers? Is it a factor that ICBC is a big fish in the small pond of personal injury? Today’s ICBC offer to settle case shows that not accepting an offer…
If ICBC hires a doctor to examine a claimant, the denial of the claim may be based on “junk science” and therefore can be challenged. Novelty is a measure of reliability which must be balanced against its effect on the mind of the trier of fact. The concept of ‘novel’ is used to distinguish evidence that…
ICBC, in this personal injury case, having been ordered to pay almost $400,000 in punitive damages for reprehensible conduct, wins a stay in the payment pending their appeal (Arsenovski v. Bodin,2016 BCCA 178). This ICBC injury case involved a car accident which occurred at the intersection of Nelson Avenue and Imperial Street in Burnaby. The claimant pedestrian was…
Another walloping to the auto insurer ICBC as they seem to continually refuse to make reasonable offers of settlement. The Court has awarded $411,158.00 after a 2 week trial in Vancouver to a claimant involved in a motor vehicle accident while driving on Highway 1 near Kamloops, B.C. (Biefeld v. Neetz,2016 BCSC 689). As a result…
This injury claimant was awarded almost $1 million after suffering chronic pain injuries from a car accident. The accident occurred at the intersection of Fraser Street and 41st Avenue in Vancouver. The claimant’s vehicle was in the dedicated left turn lane and the defendant, intending to drive to the front of the left turn lane to…
This was an assessment of the injury claimant’s bill of costs in a personal injury action that was settled at a mediation some three and a half months before the trial. The issue was whether it was reasonable to incur the cost of a vocational assessment when the claimant was already at the age of retirement…
ICBC still is unable to make reasonable offers to settle in many personal injury cases despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars updating their computer systems and firing over 250 mostly managers. The promise of “firm but fair” offer seems to have turned to “firmly unfair” thanks to ICBC. In the most recent case of Sebaa…
Here are two British Columbia ICBC case examples to help understand how to value an award for pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life for children injured in a car accident suffering neck, shoulders and back injury, PTSD, and severe anxiety. $40,000.00 2014 BCSC 262 (B.C. S.C.)- The infant plaintiff,10 years old at the…
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) is often hotly contested by ICBC and other insurance companies after a car accident. In this case the judge accepted the diagnosis. She had the benefit of hearing from two neurologists who had conflicting opinions on whether or not the claimant suffered a MTBI. The defence neurology expert, Dr. Rehan Dost, was…