An award for personal injury losses requires a trial judge, orally or in writing, to provide adequate reasons justifying the award. However this was not done in the following case, illustrating the real prejudice inadequate reasons can pose to innocent personal injury claimants. The injury claimant, riding as a front seat passenger had her feet hanging…
This Car accident brain injury award for an 18 year old passenger (Hermanson v. Durkee, 2014 BCSC 877) arose from a single vehicle accident on a forest road in British Columbia. The vehicle left the road which resulting in the ICBC claimant suffering a severe traumatic brain injury and ruptured spleen. Because of the location of the motor vehicle accident there…
No adverse inference was drawn by the judge after the claimant failed to have his family doctor testify at the personal injury trial. (Fabretti v. Gill,2014 BCSC 899). This ICBC injury case involved a car accident that occurred on the Pattullo Bridge in New Westminster. The claimant was only 12 years old at the time. He…
This car accident personal injury claimant was awarded the cost of a private MRI as a reasonable disbursement (Gray v. Kohnert,2014 BCSC 888). This is great news for BC injury claimants but does have a few personal injury lawyers scratching their heads. Just weeks before this decision the Court refused the costs of a private…
This successful personal injury claimant was awarded double costs of all steps taken in the lawsuit following an offer to settle he made in the week before the trial (Ostrikoff v. Oliveira,2014 BCSC 842). In ICBC personal injury cases additional costs can be awarded to a party if they beat a reasonable offer made before the…
The best news in 33 years for ICBC claims and personal injury cases involving claims for future loss of earnings and costs of future care! The decrease in the discount rate for future loss announced April 30, 2014 means claimants can expect more money for awards and settlements for future losses. This better reflects the decrease in…
In this offer to settle a personal injury case Judge Funt has done away with the old rule against all-inclusive offers to settle. That is to say the Judge entertained an $250,000 all-inclusive pre-trial offer of the defendant when awarding double costs to the defendant, changing the law and overturning our Court of Appeal in Helm v. Pattie(1998),…
Quick Answer: “A Case Settles for what it is Worth” As a young lawyer I was told by my mentor Thomas O. Griffiths a case settles for what is it worth and was quickly put to work researching caselaw. I had a hard time understanding what he meant because you never know how much the…
Money compensation from ICBC and other insurance companies for pain and suffering should be dictated by the amount claimants are able to obtain under the law. In this car accident case the personal injury claimant was driving along Jacklin Road near Sooke Road in Victoria, B.C. when another car struck her right rear section while exiting a…
Important implications for ICBC settlements arise from this ground breaking Court of Appeal case forcing ICBC to pay double costs for failing to accept a reasonable offer of settlement (Meghji v. British Columbia (Ministry of Transportation and Highways,2014 BCCA 105 ). The court found that it is improper for ICBC to reject all settlement offers above the…