In a stunning personal injury decision the Supreme Court has reduced a damage award for a brain injured 27 year old claimant. The court has taken judicial notice that cocaine is highly addictive, with heavy users facing a significant long-term and possibly life-long risk of relapse.(Kirilenko v. Bowie,2017 BCSC 2048) There was no real issue that…
This personal injury case the claimant was awarded a total of $404,282.20. However the defendants made a formal offer to settle before trial for $474,456.00 new money, plus advances of $15,669.40 for a total of $490,125.45, making it $101,475.74 higher than recovered.(Layes v. Stevens,2017 BCSC 2011) The claimant was injured in the motor vehicle accident. It came…
This personal injury claimant did not accept a reasonable offer to settle and the award at trial was significantly less than the offer. The claimant was offered more than $400,000 to settle his personal injury case before court but he refused. The jury awarded him under $200,000.(Luckett v. Chahal,2017 BCSC 1983) The court found the…
This injury claimant was a front seat passenger travelling northbound on Highway 6, between the towns of New Denver and Playmor Junction in the Kootenay region of B.C. when the car went out of control nearing a corner, crossed the highway and came to rest in a ditch. There were no other vehicles involved in…
ICBC arguments on the failure to attend recommended treatment, mitigation, are often narrow and focused, as displayed in the following $150,000 pain and suffering injury case. ICBC argued that prior substance abuse should result in a low award but the BC Supreme Court decided this ICBC case was worth over $720,000. The car accident was a head-on collision on…
This personal injury case involved a driver that fled the scene of a car accident causing serious injury to the ICBC claimant. The judge was not only satisfied that it was the defendant that was the driver the judge awarded the claimant $100,000 in addition to the award as punishment for the hit and run driver fleeing…
For Thanksgiving weekend this ICBC injury claimant was travelling from Vancouver to Kelowna on Highway 1, just east of the Port Mann Bridge, when his vehicle was struck from behind. The other vehicle was then rear ended by another car causing a second impact with the claimant’s vehicle. The claimant continued his planned Thanksgiving day trip to Kelowna after renting a vehicle but…
A claimant must prove three elements to win a personal injury case: (1) that the defendant owed him a duty of care, (2) that the defendant’s behaviour breached the standard of care, and (3) that the claimant suffered damage caused (in fact and law) by the defendant’s breach. In this tragic case a dirt bike and All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) collided…
An ICBC injury claim always gets to a point where offers to settle have to be made. If an injury claimant makes a reasonable offer and ICBC refuses to to accept the offer, the Court can punish ICBC if the court award in more than the offer. However, the rules of court allow judges to…
Medical Experts in personal injury cases are supposed to be impartial, independent and absent of bias. Dr. O.M. Sovio was qualified as an expert in orthopedic surgery in this personal injury case but his opinion was rejected by the Court. Dr. Sovio agreed that in the years since 2009 work for the Insurance Corporation of British…