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…
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…
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,…
A $222,000 offer to settle a car accident injury claim was rejected and after a ten day trial a jury awarded $53,000. In light of the juries award the claimant was denied the costs of preparation and attendance at trial (Wafler v. Trinh,2014 BCCA 95). The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia had made three offers to settle…
In many personal injury cases offers to settle are made before going to trial to avoid the cost and risk. These offers are referred to as “without prejudice offers of settlement”. In this tragic pedestrian crosswalk case(Paskall v. Scheithauer,) The claimant was asking for some $2 million but the jury only awarded her $82,400 and found…
In this bus accident injury settlement, (Zhang v. Heikkila,2013 BCSC 2275) following the examinations for discovery and after three medical reports had been obtained the matter settled for $11,000.00 plus costs and disbursements. ICBC refused however to pay the cost of three medical legal reports but in this application was forced by the court to…
In this double costs Fast Track personal injury case(Peacock v. Battel, 2013 BCSC 1902) the claimant made an offer to settle to settle her case for $125,000.00 but the defendant, insured by ICBC, refused making only a $41,000 offer. The court awarded the claimant $255,000 and found that ICBC should have accepted the claimants offer. This…
Settled Personal Injury Case includes Cost of Mandarin Translation In this personal injury translation cost case(Jin v. Caleca,2013 BCSC 1614) settlement of the personal injury claim was reached but the defendant refused to pay the costs the personal injury lawyer had incurred in having his legal advice interpreted for the client. Having English as a…
The claimant in this reasonable offer personal injury case(Gulbrandsen v. Mohr,2013 BCSC 1481) was a passenger in a car accident. The Judge accepted the claimant was injured in the accident awarding her $28,000.0 in damages, but found that she was not a trustworthy witness. Her evidence about lost time at work was vague and she had…