Being a personal injury lawyer in Vancouver since 1995 gives me the benefit of some experiential knowledge when it comes to what ICBC says publicly about bodily injury claims and how they behave in private litigation. The recent attempt of ICBC to obtain an insurance rate increase is the latest example of a government corporation…
If an offer to settle is not accepted within a reasonable amount of time double costs, being a punitive award, can be awarded to the successful claimant if that offer is beaten at trial. This principle applies to almost all personal injury cases including the ones in which a claimant has beat an offer to…
Awards for pain and suffering are not calculated but rather assessed. In British Columbia personal injury lawyers provide Judges with a range of reasonable awards based on caselaw precedent. The claimant in this chronic headache, neck, shoulder and low back pain case (Forder v. Linde,2014 BCSC 1600) was injured in a car accident when she…
This personal injury claimant beat her offer of settlement made 7 days before trial. As a result the Judge awarded the claimant double costs. The claimant was involved in a motor vehicle accident at the intersection of Lougheed Highway and Pinetree Way in Coquitlam, B.C. in which the claimant suffered mild to moderate soft tissue injuries and…
In this personal injury car accident case ICBC applied for an award of its costs or, alternatively, to deprive the claimant of their costs. ICBC offered to settle for $50,000.00 with the husband and $150,000.00 for the wife. After more than two weeks at trial the Judge awarded the wife $75,000.00 and the husband $189,000.00. (Liu…
Over $75,000.00 was added to this personal injury award on account of the Increased discount rates! (McLeod v. Goodman,2014 BCSC 1551), Future loss of earnings and costs of future care in ICBC injury claims now have to be increased to more accurately reflect the claimants real losses. As a result of changes to the discount…
This motor vehicle accident personal injury case required the Supreme Court to put a value on the pain and suffering for an eight year old boy with severe facial scarring and soft tissue injury. Tragically, his mother and his twin brother were killed, and his significant facial scarring had required him to endure numerous uncomfortable surgeries…
ICBC injury claims can often involve valuing pain and suffering for children and teenagers. This personal injury claimant was a 9 years old passenger in the front seat of her mother’s minivan when another vehicle failed to yield the right of way and collided with her right front bumper(Toopitsin v. McMullen,2014 BCSC 1486). She claims…
This personal injury claimant offered to settle with ICBC for $60,000.00 one day before trial. The offer was only open for acceptance until that same afternoon at 4 p.m. The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, insurer for the defendant, rejected the offer and the trial judge awarded the claimant over $67,000.00 (Barnes v. Lima, 2014 BCSC 1475).…
The question in this personal injury case was whether the claimant should be awarded the maximum amount for pain and suffering, reserved for catastrophic injury, or at something lower. On the evidence, the upper limit set by the Supreme Court of Canada, adjusted for inflation, was $351,000. This limit now applies to all ICBC personal…