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
As a personal injury lawyer dealing with ICBC since 1995, having settled hundreds of injury cases, there are three certainties I have come to expect in every case. No matter the age, sex, or work ability of the claimant, here are three realities claimants should know about ICBC settlements: The claimant will be required to sign…
The claimant was rear-ended in a car accident and alleged he suffered chronic pain, with physical and psychological consequences, arising from neck and back injuries. The claimant had a longstanding stuttering condition since he was a young boy. The cause of this condition remained unknown and he continued to stutter to the date of trial (Karim v.…
The claimant was injured in a single vehicle accident when she lost control of her vehicle due to slippery road conditions. The Claimant said that the defendants, responsible for highway maintenance in the area where the accident occurred, were negligent. The Capilano defendants deny liability and say that they complied with their duties. The road…
As ICBC Claims Lawyers part of our job is protecting personal injury claimants from broad requests for disclosure of medical, employment and school records. There are limits to what ICBC and other defendant insurers can expect to receive early in the litigation, and the BC Court of Appeal agrees. In the case of Century Services Inc.…
In this personal injury case a formal ICBC offer to settle in the amount of $77,400 was accepted by the claimant just two weeks before an 8 day trial. ICBC conducted surveillance of the claimant starting the day after the defendant made the offer to settle. The defendant’s therefore claimed the cost of the investigation…
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, ICBC, is a government created corporate monopoly for third party auto insurance. ICBC has recently began to use its’ power, after injury claimants accept an offer of settlement, to refuse injury claimants the cost of diagnosis, assessment and treatment of personal injuries(ICBC denial of costs provokes court comment). In this…
The following personal injury case will be used as a case study into what not to do as a personal injury claimant. Almost everything a personal injury claimant should not do after a car accident, is contained in this injury case (T. v. ICBC, 2015 BCSC 359). The trial judge should be commended, if not compensated…
A new trial has been ordered for this personal injury claimant after the trial judge dismissed the case without any justifiable reason. This personal injury cases gives some assurance that claimant’s can stand up to judges that inject their own opinions in place of medical experts. This case is also a warning to trial judges…
It can be confusing to determine the principle operator under ICBC auto insurance when reporting a car accident claim to the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. The issue in this case: who drove the automobile the majority of the time? must be established in the evidence ( Schaffner v. Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, 2015 BCSC 314) .…
The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal of rejected claim of brain injury ( Jampolsky v. Insurance Corporation of British Columbia,2015 BCCA 87). The young man from Surrey, BC suffered personal injury in four car accidents and after a four week trial was only awarded $15,000.00 ( read our review of the trial award: ICBC…