The Injury Award In this car accident injury case, the claimant was found to have suffered from a severe and chronic somatoform pain disorder. He was awarded over $1.5 million which included $180,000 for pain and suffering; Past loss of earning capacity of $178,000; future loss of earning capacity of $1,176,000; and out of pocket…
The Supreme Court of Canada in Saadati v. Moorhead 2017 SCC 28 has set a precedent which helps injured claimants access justice more easily against ICBC and other insurance companies for mental injuries such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and somatic symptom disorder. In this case, the injured claimant was injured in a motor…
Written by Ms. Jacqueline A. Small, B.A. LL.B In this personal injury case the ICBC injury claimant was rear-ended while stopped for traffic on the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver (Verjee v. Dunbrak 2019 BCSC 1696). At trial, the injury claimant argued that the motor vehicle accident caused her to suffer from ongoing chronic pain in…
This case explains how to apply to strike a jury notice in a motor vehicle case. The claimant applied to strike the jury due to complex medical causation issues. He argued that somatic symptom disorder, SSD, was far too difficult for a jury to understand.(Lee v. Averbach, 2019 BCSC 1280). The court disagreed and did…
In this personal injury case the claimant suffered injury in two motor vehicle accidents for which she was not at fault. The claimant was a 16 year-old high school student, enrolled in Grade 11 when the first car accident occurred. It requires the capital asset approach to assess the value of personal injury case when…
This 46-year-old self employed bookkeeper and housekeeper sustained personal injuries in a rear end motor vehicle accident at the intersection of Lovers’ Lane and Cameron Taggart Road in Cobble Hill, British Columbia. After the claimant had stopped at the intersection, her car was struck from behind by a minivan. The defendants admitted liability. As a result of the…
The injury claimant was stopped on Highway 1 at the Prest Road exit ramp when a flatbed truck swerved and struck the left driver’s side of her vehicle. Shaken by the collision, at first the claimant took no notice of any injury. She then developed severe symptoms in the following days. The claimant was found…
This personal injury case involved a driver that fled the scene of a car accident causing serious injury to the ICBC claimant. The judge was not only satisfied that it was the defendant that was the driver the judge awarded the claimant $100,000 in addition to the award as punishment for the hit and run driver fleeing…
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 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…