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 Denied Last Minute Medical Examination of Injury Victim

In this personal injury case the ICBC insured could not reasonably claim to be surprised by the subject matter of a functional capacity evaluation report and was denied further medical examination of the claimant (Falbo v. Ryan,2015 BCSC 2452). It is rare that the court will order any further medical examinations after the 84 expert deadline. It…

Shopping for the Best ICBC Injury Lawyer

It been over 20 years since I began the practice of Personal Injury Law in Vancouver and hiring an injury lawyer has diversified in that time. The decline of the Yellow pages and raise in the search engine has spawned new hierarchies for reliable information. Hiring a good personal injury lawyer for your ICBC claim will still provide the expertise…

ICBC Must Pay Benefits Despite Prior Neck and Back Pain

This ICBC injury insurance Appeal case concerned the nature of the claim for injury benefits under Part 7 of the Insurance  Regulations and the interpretation of s. 96(f) of the Regulation when a claimant has a pre-existing condition . The case stands for the proposition that ICBC must prove that but for the pre-existing condition, the Claimant would not have become totally disabled(Kozhikhov…

Insurance a Factor in an ICBC Offer to Settle

In this personal injury case ICBC was denied their costs despite the claimant failing to beat a  pre-trial offer to settle. ICBC made an offer of $93,500 to settle the lawsuit on behalf of the defendant 2 weeks before trial. The claimant refused the offer and was awarded $91,700 at trial (Zhao v. Yu,2015 BCSC 2342).…

$65,000 Awarded For Slip and Fall in Burger King

The claimant slipped on a wet floor in the bathroom of the Nanaimo Burger King restaurant and injured his right shoulder and right knee.  Buinesses are supposed to have a system in place for maintaining safety but the Court found no evidence that such system was in place (Scarfe v. Fernco Developments Ltd., 2015 BCSC 2310). In…

ICBC Internal Settlement Documents May have to be Disclosed

Although inconsistent with a recent case refusing disclosure of the ICBC settlement brief,  this case may open the way for claimants to obtain ICBC internal settlement documents for prior car accident claims( Easton v. Chen, 2015 BCSC 2288). However the current state of the law needs to be affirmed by the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal. In this…

$250,000 Loss of Earning Capacity Award in Rear End Accident Upheld

The Court Appeal has made it clear in this personal injury case that an award for loss of future earning capacity reflects the exercise of judgment framed by clearly articulated factual findings. To require the trial judge to say more than he did in this case would be to impose an impossible burden on trial judges (Fadai…

Considerations Before Settling Your Personal Injury Claim With ICBC

Do not do the following when settling with ICBC: (1) Hold back your treatment expenses; (2) Agree to repay your employer’s insurance company after the settlement; (3) Put an inappropriate value on your case; and (4) provide unnecessary and irrelevant documents. You should know that even after settlement the ICBC settlement file will stay with…

Medical Examination Ordered For Rebuttal Report After 84 Day Deadline

The Court accepted that the Neurologist in this ICBC car accident injury claim needed to perform a physical exam of the claimant in order to properly prepare a report in response to claimant’s medical experts (Ram v. Chhina, 2015 BCSC 2193). This despite the examination taking place only 2 months before the personal injury trial was scheduled to begin. This…

Settlement Privilege Attached to the Documents Prepared by Previous Lawyer

This was a court application to force a claimant to disclose the details of a prior auto insurance settlement (Gamble v. Brown,2015 BCSC 1873).This lawsuit arose out of a motor vehicle accident which occurred  in Surrey, British Columbia in which there was a claim for injuries and loss suffered by the plaintiff. The matter was set for a…