$15,000 for Mental Distress and Total Disability Defined

This 36 year old injury claimant sought  an order requiring Empire Life Insurance Company  to pay her long-term disability benefits as the insurance company refused to pay the disability benefits (Tanious v. The Empire Life Insurance Company,2016 BCSC 110). The retroactive value of the claim was no more than $60,000, after making appropriate deductions for taxes and CPP…

Read more

$100,000 Pain and Suffering Award for Neck Pain and Headaches

The purpose of an award for pain and suffering, called “non-pecuniary damages”, is to provide money compensation that ameliorates the condition of an injured claimant. In making such an award, the following factors are relevant: age of the claimant;  nature of the injury;severity and duration of pain; disability; emotional suffering; loss or impairment of life;  impairment of family, marital and social…

Read more

Most Important Personal Injury Cases of 2015

Developments in personal injury law for 2015 are exciting and range from the new and approved claim of moral injury to new limits on sanctions that can be leveled against injury claimants. ICBC claimants that fail to accept a reasonable offer no longer have to pay double costs and Masters cannot impose financially crippling sanctions against claimants  in the document…

Read more

Insurance a Factor in an ICBC Offer to Settle

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).…

Read more

$250,000 Loss of Earning Capacity Award in Rear End Accident Upheld

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…

Read more

Considerations Before Settling Your Personal Injury Claim With ICBC

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…

Read more

ICBC Continues to Pay Dr. Grypma to Advocate and Attack Claimant Credibility

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, ICBC, is a government created auto insurance monopoly entrusted with providing universal public auto insurance in British Columbia. However, ICBC has been using biased medical experts to deny legitimate personal injury claims, the following case is a recent example (Litt v. Hassan, 2015 BCSC 1920).  This twisted and tainted approach to…

Read more

Fall on Bus Results in $40,000 Award for Pain and Suffering

The claimant suffered injuries as a passenger on a bus operated by the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, doing business as Translink and/or Coast Mountain Bus Company Limited (“Translink”).  The claimant was  76 years old at the time of trial and claims that he fell when the bus on Translink’s route number eight stopped suddenly…

Read more

ICBC Claims Chart for Personal Injury

Seeking advice about the value of an ICBC claim? As a lawyer I am often asked whether there is list to go to find out how much a particular personal injury is worth. Essentially a list of body parts and corresponding compensation amounts for each area of the body. For example, $25,000 for whiplash to the…

Read more