Since 2010, Holness and Small Law Group has written over 1000 legal blog articles. We believe that staying informed and current with personal injury news and case developments is essential to providing proper legal services to our clients when advocating for their rights.
When I began practicing personal injury law over 20 years ago the legislation creating the Insurance Corporation of BC, ICBC, was much different. Back then ICBC did not control the motor vehicle licensing branch in the Province and did not work as an arm of government collecting fines for Translink. Today’s car insurance scheme in British…
The personal injury lawyer hired by this claimant was able to negotiate an offer to settle of $100,000 with ICBC in a car accident injury case. However, the claimant was not happy with this amount, fired the lawyer and went to court himself. The court awarded the claimant $50,000 (2015 BCSC 1504) and ordered the claimant to pay the lawyer his proper fees for…
In this Chronic regional myofascial pain syndrome case the 35 year old ICBC claimant was stopped in her car at a red light when she was struck from behind by the defendant. Liability for the car accident was admitted. Injuries to her neck, upper and lower back, shoulders, depression, sleep disturbance, fatigue, headaches and has chronic…
When this personal injury decision came out awarding $36,042.30 I called it A Case Study into What Not to Do in an ICBC Injury Claim. The ICBC claimant had sought an award of damages exceeding $2 million and after 33 days in trial almost all of the claims of loss were dismissed. In this follow up decision the Judge awarded ICBC…
A personal injury award for loss of future earning capacity was awarded to this claimant despite his janitorial business continuing to be successful and thriving since the car accident in question(MacDonald v. Joseph,2015 BCSC 1461) The claimant was a 29 year old passenger when the head on car accident occurred on Vancouver Island. The airbags deployed in the…
In the following personal injury case the claimant represented herself against a horse-riding business offering guided trail rides to customers. The claimant fell off a horse that she had rented while on a trail ride led by one of the guides (Starrett v. Campbell,2015 BCSC 1424). The claimant did not hire a lawyer to represent her at trial and…
If you settle an injury claim with ICBC after a car accident, and receive lifetime payments from an annuity, should those payments be considered income for the purpose of child support payment obligations? We help answer that question in the following case review. K.T. suffered serious injuries in a motor vehicle accident and entered into a settlement…
This personal injury lawsuit arose from a motor vehicle accident which occurred when a trailer swayed in the wind and broke off injuring the claimant. This was a successful application by the claimant pursuant to Rule 9 – 7 of the Supreme Court Civil Rules for judgment against the defendant on the issue of liability. The court concluded…
The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal of a police offer found 20% at fault for injury and death caused by a suicidal individual who drove his vehicle into oncoming traffic killing himself and the other driver (Bergen v. Guliker, 2015 BCCA 283). This case establishes that there is currently no recognized duty of care owned to the…
In British Columbia it is assumed that every personal injury claimant is entitled to the confidentiality implicit in his or her attendance in a physician’s examining room and protection of his or her privacy on a personal matter, absent serious concerns relating to health or safety, or express legislative provisions compelling release of the information in the…
