Teen awarded $8,500 for Cuts, Scrapes, Bruises and Scar

  The 15 year old Claimant in this personal injury case was one of nine teenage passengers in a vehicle travelling at a high rate of speed, planning to throw eggs at people. She had drunk from a shared 2‑litre bottle of alcohol cider and sat in the vehicle wearing no seatbelt. Before the accident…

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$160,000 Pain and Suffering for Mild Complicated Brain Injury

  Mild traumatic brain injury, MTBI, is often difficult to diagnose and as a result insurance companies like ICBC often refuse to pay proper compensation for this injury without judicial determination. In the following personal injury claim the Court acknowledges that patients who sustain complicated MTBIs generally exhibit long term or residual symptoms that often affect…

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$150,000 Awarded for Somatic Symptom Disorder DSM-5

Determining the appropriate amount of money in a personal injury case for pain and suffering is and assessment and not a calculation. This assessment was made difficult in the following personal injury case when the court was forced to consider the opinion of an argumentative ICBC paid doctor (Redmond v. Krider, 2015 BCSC 178). Mindful of the…

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Expert Reports and Exaggeration Finding Rejected- New Trial Ordered

In this sensationally important personal injury case the Court of Appeal has made it very clear that consulting reports must substantially comply with the Rules to be admissible as expert reports (Healey v. Chung, 2015 BCCA 38). This makes it very difficult for the personal injury claimant to get opinion evidence into court as “clinical records” are…

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Judge Awards over $650,000 for Chronic Myofascial Pain

In this ICBC personal injury case the claimant sought injury compensation of over $865,000, with loss of future earning capacity at over $618,000.  ICBC, the insurer, argued that the claimant should not receive more than $89,000( Camilleri v. Bergen, 2015 BCSC 124). The claimant was injured in a motor vehicle collision and there was largely consensus…

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Car Accident Victim Denied Cost of Marihuana to Treat Pain

After a car accident in British Columbia the cost of care awarded by the court can include  medical marihuana. However, in the following personal injury case there was not enough evidence to make the connection between the car accident injuries and the need to smoke pot(2015 BCSC 57). This case also gives an excellent checklist for…

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ICBC Injury Claims include Cost of Functional Capacity and Cost of Care Reports

The Insurance Corporation of BC, ICBC,  seems to have adopted the practice of settling ICBC claims and then fighting the claimant’s necessary and reasonable litigation expenses after settlement. However, the following ICBC injury claim stands for the proposition that claimants have a duty to ensure that all areas of the injury claim are supported with…

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Injury Claimant Beat Offer to Settle But no Double Costs

In this personal injury case the Claimant made an offer to settle which was rejected by ICBC (the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia). He proceeding to trial and beat his offer by $920. However the Judge was not satisfied that the claimant’s formal offer was one that ICBC ought reasonably to have accepted (Saopaseuth v.…

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7 day notice of Offer to Settle in Personal Injury Case not Required

In this personal injury case the ICBC insured driver rear-ended the claimant and knocked him off his motorcycle. The claimant suffered injuries to his neck which required surgery and ultimately resulted in devastating physical effects due to the onset of conversion disorder. The court awarded the claimant $2,735,818.16 for injuries received as a result of…

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Car Accident Settlement – Costs Same Proportion as Liability

Once a claim for personal injury is settled there is often post settlement negotiations to award the reasonable case costs. This post settlement negotiation can have a dramatic impact on the money a claimant gets in their pocket after fees, expenses and taxes. In this personal injury case the defendants served the claimant with an…

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