This was an assessment of the injury claimant’s bill of costs in a personal injury action that was settled at a mediation some three and a half months before the trial. The issue was whether it was reasonable to incur the cost of a vocational assessment when the claimant was already at the age of retirement…
ICBC still is unable to make reasonable offers to settle in many personal injury cases despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars updating their computer systems and firing over 250 mostly managers. The promise of “firm but fair” offer seems to have turned to “firmly unfair” thanks to ICBC. In the most recent case of Sebaa…
A Supreme Court Master refused to force this injury claimant to submit to an ICBC medical examination on two separate occasions and the Master awarded her costs. The judge made a substantial award of damages in this car accident injury case and awarded the claimant to costs at Scale B but denied her costs of defending these two…
In this Fast Track personal injury case, the claimant settled 5 months before trial and was successful in seeking the full amount allowed for legal costs pursuant to Rule 15-1(15) (Karp v. Kalsi,2015 BCSC 1949). The car accident in question occurred 4 years before the scheduled trial after the parties had exchanged documents and the claimant was examined for discovery.…
This personal injury claimant, born and raised in the Lower Mainland, was awarded $14,000 for his legal costs and the defendant was ordered the pay the trial costs of the his medical experts (Mothe v. Silva,2015 BCSC 1053 ). The claimant was injured in a motor vehicle accident that occurred at River Road in Richmond, BC…
There were two offers to settle made by the claimant in this case: one in the amount of $800,000 before trial and the other during the course of trial, in the amount of $1,010,000. The defendant offered to settle for $55,000.00. At trial the claimant was found 50% at fault for a car accident and…
The claimant was rear-ended in a car accident and alleged he suffered chronic pain, with physical and psychological consequences, arising from neck and back injuries. The claimant had a longstanding stuttering condition since he was a young boy. The cause of this condition remained unknown and he continued to stutter to the date of trial (Karim v.…
In this personal injury case a formal ICBC offer to settle in the amount of $77,400 was accepted by the claimant just two weeks before an 8 day trial. ICBC conducted surveillance of the claimant starting the day after the defendant made the offer to settle. The defendant’s therefore claimed the cost of the investigation…
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, ICBC, is a government created corporate monopoly for third party auto insurance. ICBC has recently began to use its’ power, after injury claimants accept an offer of settlement, to refuse injury claimants the cost of diagnosis, assessment and treatment of personal injuries(ICBC denial of costs provokes court comment). In this…
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…