Blaming innocent victims for not calling expert witnesses sounds unfair. The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia defends guilty drivers. The guilty drivers blame claimants for not paying doctors to testify at trial. Then they ask the court to draw an adverse inference. The current government changed the expert rules to help the state run auto…
The claimant was a pedestrian injured in a car accident. She hired a medical doctor specializing in occupational medicine to assist at the personal injury trial. In that capacity, Dr. B. was qualified as an expert “capable of providing expert opinion evidence with respect to the diagnosis, prognosis, rehabilitation, and functional and occupational, vocational and…
This married couple went to court with no lawyer for personal injuries arising from three car accidents. Liability for the car accidents were admitted and both claimants contended they were incapacitated and permanently affected by their injuries. Following a 13 day trial the claimants were awarded very little, under $30,000 each after deductions ( Ma. v. Haniak, 2017 BCSC 549 ). ICBC…
The claimant boarded a city bus in Vancouver that accelerated suddenly causing her to lose her balance and fall. She sued, without a personal injury lawyer, and the trial judge dismissed her claim. The bus company cross examined the claimant using surveillance video in a subsequent bus incident to impeach her credibility claiming it was a…
The personal injury claimant was turning left at a dedicated left-turn lane in order to enter the parking lot of Kensington Square Shopping Centre on East Hastings Street in Burnaby, B.C. and collided with another vehicle travelling eastbound on East Hastings Street (Jones v. Frohlick,2018 BCCA 170). He suffered a displaced fracture of the sternum, and injuries…
The claimant was operating his motorcycle on Highway 1 when he entered an off-ramp at exit 44 in the City of Coquitlam. The claimant alleges that as he entered the off-ramp, the front tire of his motorcycle struck the edge of a bridge deck on the ramp that was raised above the level of the…
This was a motor vehicle accident injury case set to proceed before a jury for eight days. 12 days before trial the defendant serve a Supplementary Report from an orthopaedic expert. The jury had just been selected and was required to stand down while the lawyers argued over the admissibility of this late report (Hilton v.…
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”.…
In complicated civil litigation there may often be multiple orders of the court, some in favour of a litigant and some against. All the while offers to settle are being exchanged privately. What does it mean by the end of a trial to beat an offer to settle and be “substantially successful”? The Court of Appeal…
This injury claimant alleged the bridge designers failed to properly design a manhole cover near the Pitt River Bridge resulting in his car accident injury. The claimant described the manhole as protruding some inches above the surface of the roadway. His claim was dismissed at a summary trial on the basis that he had failed to establish a breach…