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.
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).…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The Court of Appeal grappled with the definition of “person under disability” under the court rules finding that the Rule 20-2 is a “complete code” and does not permit persons under legal disability to bring or defend proceedings in Supreme Court except through a litigation guardian. This claimant raised an “issue of discrimination” referring to the fact that…
The Court of Appeal has effectively eliminated the ability to strike a jury on the grounds of complexity, length and multiple conflicting medical opinion (Rados v. Pannu,2015 BCCA 459). The claimant was injured in a car accident and applied unsuccessfully to strike a Jury Notice filed by the defendants insurance company for a complicated 2…
Our Supreme Court Judges have no power to deal with the rights of employees and the liability of employers when car accident personal injuries are suffered in the course of employment, concludes Judge Burnyeat after an extensive review of the law (Pinch v. Hofstee,2015 BCSC 1888). The claimant was injured in two motor vehicle accidents ( MVA#1 and…
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