Personal injury claimants without lawyers should avoid long and unclear court submissions, a lesson from the following ICBC injury claim. This was an appeal from the dismissal of a lawsuit against ICBC for disability benefits related to a car accident which occurred in British Columbia. The Appellant went to court without a lawyer against ICBC…
As a personal injury lawyer since 1995 I have had many personal injury claimants call and regret settling their ICBC injury claims without a lawyer. It is very difficult to re-open a case after a settlement agreement release has been signed by the claimant. If the injury claimant has sought the advice of a lawyer…
BC auto insurer, ICBC, must decide what happens to death benefits and survivor insurance if a person chooses to have a doctor assist ending their life as a result of a catastrophic injury. Will ICBC death benefit insurance be excluded even if death would have occurred within the policy term anyway? Will ICBC pay for assisted death…
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…
This significant unanimous decision has effectively done away with double costs for ICBC and other disability insurance companies in civil claims where the plaintiff obtains an award for less than an offer to settle (C.P. v. RBC Life Insurance Company, 2015 BCCA 30). The important issue in this BC Court of Appeal case was the availability of double costs…
The Court of Appeal has upheld the dismissal of this personal injury lawsuit as the claimant entered the intersection imprudently without care and attention and at a time when the other vehicle constituted a threat of collision (Jones v. Treloar, 2014 BCCA 492). The claimant was driving his motorcycle at Georgia Street and Broughton Street in Vancouver…
In a surprising personal injury claim decision the British Columbia Court of Appeal has remitting the matter of cost of future care to the judge for a fresh determination. ICBC successfully challenged the awards for massage therapy and physiotherapy; Botox injections to the right shoulder; prescription for Nortriptyline; chiropractic treatment; and seasonal cleaning and gardening assistance (Johal…
After a car accident, a mild traumatic brain injury case usually relies heavily on the credibility of the claimant. With a normal MRI and no objective signs of injury, the court must rely on the credibility and reliability of the claimant and the strength of any corroborating evidence. The following appeal of a Brain Injury…
This was an appeal from a personal injury case apportioning 60% of the liability for a motor vehicle accident to the injury claimant. The car accident occurred on the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge on the Trans-Canada Highway between Vancouver and North Vancouver (Langille v. Marchant, 2014 BCCA 430). The claimant rear-ended a vehicle after passing the crest on…
This personal injury Claimant was walking through a parking lot of a strip mall in Cranbrook, B.C. when he was struck by and injured by a motor vehicle. The trial judge concluded that the driver was 33 1/3% liable and the Claimant was 66 2/3% liable for the accident. However the Claimant’s appeal was allowed and…
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