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 93 year old personal injury claimant completely ignored medical advice that he not travel on public transportation unassisted and injured his right shoulder after trying to exit a moving bus (Bideci v. Neuhold, 2014 BCSC 542). There is however prima facie negligence against public carriers and the driver was found 2/3 at fault for not looking carefully…
This personal injury case settled for $75,000 plus costs and disbursements recognizing the claimant’s loss of quality of life. The remaining dispute however was over the Claimants costs for hiring a booking agent to find a medical expert (Ross v. Logan, 2014 BCSC 548) . Taking a personal injury case to trial in British Columbia often…
The court awarded more than $300,000.00 to this heavy duty mechanic that suffered injuries in two car accidents (Hong v. Wagner,2014 BCSC 373). Despite considerable concern surrounding the reliability and credibility of the claimant’s testimony the medical evidence established that the claimant has a permanent partial disability and will suffer from shoulder pain in the future.…
With legal assistance after a car accident being critical to the successful outcome of most Insurance Corporation of B.C. claims the lawyers at Holness Law Group report automobile crashes to ICBC. As a lawyer in Vancouver I often help by first reporting a car accident to ICBC even if a client has already called dial-a-claim.…
Personal injury lawyers in BC will want to take note that the Court of Appeal has reversed an award of trial costs as the judge was clearly wrong in finding that the defendants were successful. (Loft v. Nat,2014 BCCA 108). The Court of Appeal makes it clear that obtaining less money than what was requested…
Personal injury lawyers are often faced with advising clients about offers of settlement. This, claimant gets awarded less than settlement offer case(Brewster v. Li,2014 BCSC 463) illustrates the modern approach BC Courts are taking to pre-trial offers of settlement. If you don’t accept a reasonable offer, expect to lose your costs and disbursements for trial,…
In personal injury cases, including slip and fall injuries, claimants are expected to move the litigation along and to name all of the right people and companies in the lawsuit. This dismissal of slip and fall case for want of prosecution (Morice v. Toronto-Dominion Bank,2014 BCSC 380) shows that when delay causes prejudice which goes directly and profoundly to…
A $222,000 offer to settle a car accident injury claim was rejected and after a ten day trial a jury awarded $53,000. In light of the juries award the claimant was denied the costs of preparation and attendance at trial (Wafler v. Trinh,2014 BCCA 95). The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia had made three offers to settle…
In this medical malpractice case (Chen v. Ross,2014 BCSC 374) the claimant underwent a Membrane Surgery to remove clouding and to peel scar tissue off the lining of the eye. After the surgery the claimant experienced dramatic loss of vision in the left eye, and was eventually assessed as legally blind in that eye. The loss…
The 3 year old claimant’s father was killed in a motor vehicle accident resulting in this Wrongful death award to daughter (Duncan v. Brown,2014 BCSC 153). Changes to the law now prevent ICBC and other insurance companies from avoiding a child’s claim for loss of dependency due to the existence of a step parent. The car…