A jury trial is a presumptive right in a personal injury action. This car accident injury occurred on Salt Spring Island when another vehicle, travelling in the opposite direction, turned left and into the path of the claimant’s vehicle. Given the complicated mental injury claim and other legal issues the claimant applied, unsuccessfully, to have the jury struck.…
Mental injury has also been referred to by courts as psychological injury, psychiatric injury, emotional trauma, nervous shock, hysteria, mental distress, and a host of medical terms such as conversion disorder, somatic system disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and clinical depression. The Supreme Court of Canada in Saadati has synthesized all these terms down to…
In a short but forceful unanimous three panel decision, the Court of Appeal has rung the death knell for the term “crumbing skull” to describe physical and mental conditions that may deteriorate in the future (Gordon v. Ahn,2017 BCCA 221). Other similar terms used by the court in the past include “psychological thin skull”, “eggshell personality” and “eggshell skull”.…
The Supreme Court of Canada has coined the phrase “mental injury” in a sweeping decision abolishing misguided prejudices over “psychological”, “emotional” or “psychiatric” injury claims in the law of tort. The requirement that an injury claimant suffer a medically recognized psychiatric or psychological illness or condition, as a bar to recover, has been eliminated. The ICBC injury claimant’s award of $100,000…
In this important Court of Appeal decision the court has upheld an award of $85,000 for pain and suffering arising out of a somatic symptom disorder, despite credibility and reliability issues. Also, and more importantly to the personal injury lawyers out there, the Court has dismissed the “higher burden of proof” rhetoric that has been read into…
A principal issue in this car accident injury appeal was whether the trial judge erred in finding that the claimant had failed to mitigate. The symptoms of chronic pain having been conclusively established by the finding of causation, ICBC failed to prove that she had failed to mitigate her injuries (Park v. Targonski,2017 BCCA 134). The court…
There are two types of losses, or damages, that can be claimed following a car accident whiplash injury in which the claimant is not at fault. First, Pecuniary damages for income loss and calculable out of pocket expenses. Second, Non-pecuniary damages to compensation for pain, suffering and loss of amenities and loss of enjoyment of…
Brain injury following a car accident needs to be documented and treated for the greatest chance of a person being put back in the position they were in before the injury. Here are three important steps to take if you have suffered a brain injury in a car accident: Brain Injury Management Plan In the First…
In this personal injury case the claimant was injured in two car accidents and claimed to have suffered a chronic pain syndrome. The judge found the medical expert opinion evidence presented to be highly unsatisfactory. Therefore judge Saunders was not persuaded that there was a “but for” causative link between either of the subject accidents and…
Prior Consistent Statements are Admissible to Rebut ICBC Claims of Fabrication This incredible win by the injury claimant on appeal reaffirms the evidence rule that prior consistent statements of injury claimants are admissible to rebut an allegation of recent fabrication (T. v. ICBC et al, 2016 BCCA 373). Prior consistent statements can include ICBC dial-a-claim reports, signed ICBC…