This was an assessment of the injury claimant’s bill of costs in a personal injury action that was settled at a mediation some three and a half months before the trial. The issue was whether it was reasonable to incur the cost of a vocational assessment when the claimant was already at the age of retirement…
ICBC still is unable to make reasonable offers to settle in many personal injury cases despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars updating their computer systems and firing over 250 mostly managers. The promise of “firm but fair” offer seems to have turned to “firmly unfair” thanks to ICBC. In the most recent case of Sebaa…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Baffled, the Court was forced to award special costs after ICBC settled a personal injury case yet refused to pay costs. Lawyer Jacqueline Small obtained $2,000 in special costs and costs thrown away due to ICBC failure to response to a simple Bill of Costs. ICBC’s lawyer had failed to respond to the Bill of Costs…
After a hit and run car accident claimant’s cannot and should not rely on ICBC to advise them of the reporting reporting obligations, says the British Columbia Supreme Court. Even though an ICBC claimant is required to report to ICBC the circumstances and consequences within 30 days, the ICBC adjuster can remain tight lipped about…
In this Fast Track personal injury case, the claimant settled 5 months before trial and was successful in seeking the full amount allowed for legal costs pursuant to Rule 15-1(15) (Karp v. Kalsi,2015 BCSC 1949). The car accident in question occurred 4 years before the scheduled trial after the parties had exchanged documents and the claimant was examined for discovery.…
If you have a personal injury case in which the Court has awarded more than the offer you made before trial, you may be entitled to double your legal costs. The relevant parts of The Supreme Court Rule 9-1(5) and (6) state: (5) in a proceeding in which an offer to settle has been made, the…