No Mistrial for Withdrawn Violation Ticket Presented to Jury

The personal injury claimant was turning left at a dedicated left-turn lane in order to enter the parking lot of Kensington Square Shopping Centre on East Hastings Street in Burnaby, B.C. and collided with another vehicle travelling eastbound on East Hastings Street (Jones v. Frohlick,2018 BCCA 170). He suffered a displaced fracture of the sternum, and injuries…

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Reporting after a Car Accident

This is what you need to do for an accident in British Columbia, a province with an automobile compensation scheme different than any other legal jurisdiction in the world. We have a combined no fault and tort based system for automobile insurance and compensation. You will therefore be responsible for several deadlines in both claims. For ICBC accident benefits…

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ICBC Allowed to Deny and Admit Liability for Same Car Accident

The Court of Appeal has ruled that admitting liability and settling a lawsuit but also denying liability in another lawsuit for the same car accident is not an abuse of process. (Glover v. Leakey,2018 BCCA 56) This case involved a car accident in which two lawsuits were commenced by different occupants. In one lawsuit ICBC admitted their…

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Future Care Injury Award Reduced for Public Funding

The amount awarded for cost of future care can be adjusted up or down to take into account the availability of other benefits. In this Court of Appeal decision the court reaffirms this principle as it relates to the likelihood of continued publicly funded home care from Alberta Health Services (AHS). The injury claimant was involved…

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Car Accident Victim Recovers Compensation for only 50% of Losses

This personal injury claimant was found 50% at fault for a car accident. The issue on this court application was whether the claimant should also recover only 50% of his legal costs.(Elima v. Dhaliwal,2018 BCSC 115). This personal injury lawsuit relates to a a motor vehicle accident which occurred at the intersection of Steveston Highway and Coppersmith…

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First Injury Case of 2018 Applies Possibility Test to Past Losses

In this important and first Supreme Court personal injury case of 2018 the court accepts that a claim for past loss of earning capacity involves a consideration of hypothetical events. Therefore an ICBC injury claimant is not required to prove these hypothetical events on a balance of probabilities when claiming loss of past opportunity to earn.(De Groot…

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Prima Facie Inference of Negligence Wins Appeal

This injury claimant was a passenger in a single vehicle accident. The car accident occurred on Stillwater Main Road, a gravel logging road which intersects Highway 101 near Powell River, British Columbia. As the claimant’s vehicle approached the intersection, the driver lost control, the vehicle fishtailed, went up onto an embankment, launched into the air and rolled…

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Nurse Awarded $450,000 for Future Income Loss

This injury claimant was involved in 2 car accidents. In the first she was rear-ended by a cement truck. In the second accident she was in Victoria, on her way to the airport, when the taxi she was in was struck on the side by a minivan driven.(Lauriente v. Schoonhoven,2017 BCSC 2246) The claimant worked as an emergency…

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Injury to Arthritic Hand Warrants $95,000 Pain and Suffering Award

The court concluded that prior to the car accident the claimant had a number of “quiescent but present conditions” in his hands and wrists that would likely have become increasingly symptomatic over time even if the accident had never occurred. This included arthritis of the wrist and thumb. However, the fact that the defendants’ conduct triggered the…

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$180,000 Award for Pain and Suffering in Chronic Pain Syndrome Case

This personal injury case arose from a car accident which occurred at the intersection of 140th Street and 74th Avenue in Surrey when the other vehicle turned left into the path of the claimant’s vehicle. She was 58 year old at the time of the accident and sought compensation for pain and suffering, past income loss, future income loss,…

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