In many personal injury cases offers to settle are made before going to trial to avoid the cost and risk. These offers are referred to as “without prejudice offers of settlement”. In this tragic pedestrian crosswalk case(Paskall v. Scheithauer,) The claimant was asking for some $2 million but the jury only awarded her $82,400 and found…
In this crosswalk personal injury occurring in Port Coquitlam (Paskall v. Scheithauer,2014 BCCA 26) the jury found a pedestrian twenty percent fault for her fractured her skull and traumatic brain injury after attempting to cross at a marked crosswalk. The verdict was upheld by the BC Court of Appeal despite the appellants plea that she was lawfully within a…
As a personal injury lawyer in BC since 1995 I have witnessed the evolution of chiropractic care from an uncommon and alternative form of treatment to a designated health profession used by the mainstream public. I have also been keenly aware of ICBCs changing policy when it comes to funding Chiropractic care for car accident…
This personal injury claimant suffered soft tissue injuries in a car accident which developed into pain disorder. The issue at trial was the assessment of damages, and the first jury awarded her $528,000.00. This amount was overturned on appeal creating a a new “Reliable Hearsay Test” in personal injury cases. The second jury awarded her only…
The personal injury award following a 25 day trial in this ICBC gets double costs case(Minhas v. Sartor,2014 BCSC 47) was $76,653.00, much less than the $3 million sought by the claimant and the $275,000 offered by ICBC before trial. The judge, in one of the first times in BC legal history, has awarded ICBC…
Following a car accident or other personal injury in which a person has hit their head, been rendered unconscious, or has experienced an altered state of consciousness, Magnetic Resonance Imaging ( MRI) may be ordered to rule out serious brain injury. Most personal injury lawyers want to understand however whether having a normal MRI means…
In this failure to mitigate personal injury case(Maltese v. Pratap,2014 BCSC 18) the car accident occurred on Hastings Street in Burnaby after the claimant was driving home from a Vancouver Canucks hockey game. Another vehicle failed to stop and struck the passenger side of the claimant’s vehicle in a T-bone fashion. The Claimant suffered neck and lower…
In this first reported personal injury case of 2014 the judge awarded the claimant $100,000.00 for pain and suffering and reduced it by 40% to $60,000.00 reflecting that only 60% of her ongoing complaints and symptoms were caused by the car accident, with the balance attributable to her pre-existing condition.(Raikou v. Spencer,2014 BCSC 1). The judge…
In this loss of business personal injury case (Harshenin v. MacLeod,2013 BCSC 2219) the injury claimant was injured in a rear-end collision at the intersection on Highway 3A near Castlegar, British Columbia. The injury claimant was asking for pain and suffering compensation of $100,000, past wage loss of $200,000, future loss of wages of $120,000, out of…
Experienced personal injury lawyers should know that Diffuse Axonal Brain Injury (DAI) refers to damage at an almost microscopic level to the connections of the brain. “Diffuse” means generalized in the brain. “Axonal” refers to the connections. After a car crash or other accident one may suffer a concussion, however, DAI is beyond a simply…