The law creating the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, ICBC, essentially prohibits an owner, driver or passenger from entering into a contract to exclude liability while in use and operation of a motor vehicle. The majority of our Court of Appeal have determined that such a waiver or release is contrary to the nature of…
This personal injury case involved in a motor vehicle collision that occurred on Highway 97 North near Summit Lake, BC. when the claimant hit into a parked vehicle that had lost control earlier(Hart v. Jacobsen, 2014 BCSC 704 ). Despite the ice and snow the claimant told the ICBC adjuster he was driving at 80 to…
In this offer to settle a personal injury case Judge Funt has done away with the old rule against all-inclusive offers to settle. That is to say the Judge entertained an $250,000 all-inclusive pre-trial offer of the defendant when awarding double costs to the defendant, changing the law and overturning our Court of Appeal in Helm v. Pattie(1998),…
ICBC’s offer to settle this personal injury case for $125,000.00 was just above the $121,600 awarded by the court. As a result the judge denied the claimant his costs after the date of the ICBC offer for the first accident and, having found the second car accident caused no injury, awarded costs to the other successful…
After suffering injury in three car accidents the claimant was awarded over $450,000 for pain suffering, past loss of earning capacity, impairment of future earning capacity, cost of future care, costs associated with vocational assessment, rehabilitation treatments, special damages and loss of housekeeping services (Parhar v. Dawe,2014 BCSC 580). Liability was not an issue but…
Important implications for ICBC settlements arise from this ground breaking Court of Appeal case forcing ICBC to pay double costs for failing to accept a reasonable offer of settlement (Meghji v. British Columbia (Ministry of Transportation and Highways,2014 BCCA 105 ). The court found that it is improper for ICBC to reject all settlement offers above the…
This 93 year old personal injury claimant completely ignored medical advice that he not travel on public transportation unassisted and injured his right shoulder after trying to exit a moving bus (Bideci v. Neuhold, 2014 BCSC 542). There is however prima facie negligence against public carriers and the driver was found 2/3 at fault for not looking carefully…
This personal injury case settled for $75,000 plus costs and disbursements recognizing the claimant’s loss of quality of life. The remaining dispute however was over the Claimants costs for hiring a booking agent to find a medical expert (Ross v. Logan, 2014 BCSC 548) . Taking a personal injury case to trial in British Columbia often…
Personal injury lawyers in BC will want to take note that the Court of Appeal has reversed an award of trial costs as the judge was clearly wrong in finding that the defendants were successful. (Loft v. Nat,2014 BCCA 108). The Court of Appeal makes it clear that obtaining less money than what was requested…
Personal injury lawyers are often faced with advising clients about offers of settlement. This, claimant gets awarded less than settlement offer case(Brewster v. Li,2014 BCSC 463) illustrates the modern approach BC Courts are taking to pre-trial offers of settlement. If you don’t accept a reasonable offer, expect to lose your costs and disbursements for trial,…