In this important and first Supreme Court personal injury case of 2018 the court accepts that a claim for past loss of earning capacity involves a consideration of hypothetical events. Therefore an ICBC injury claimant is not required to prove these hypothetical events on a balance of probabilities when claiming loss of past opportunity to earn.(De Groot…
The Rear Ender: Mechanics of Whiplash Associated Disorder The neck acts as a stationary marker during an average rear end impact collision. When hit from behind by a car the spine and torso load the seat and the torso begins to accelerate. Significantly high shear forces develop in the neck and brain, the spinal curves straighten and the…
This Christmas story involves four motor vehicle accidents all occurring within 2.5 years. In a previous accident the claimant also sustained a serious brain injury. To make it more jolly, between the third and fourth accidents in issue, he was involved in two additional accidents. (Lamb v. Fullerton, 2016 BCSC 1694) Claims were made for pain and suffering,…
This injury claimant was involved in 2 car accidents. In the first she was rear-ended by a cement truck. In the second accident she was in Victoria, on her way to the airport, when the taxi she was in was struck on the side by a minivan driven.(Lauriente v. Schoonhoven,2017 BCSC 2246) The claimant worked as an emergency…
Following a car accident the resulting pain can be immediate but masked by other injuries for several days. The issue then becomes whether the car accident caused the injury given the symptoms may be reported several days or weeks after the car crash. In this personal injury case the claimant was travelling northbound on Highway 22 near Castlegar,…
This personal injury case arose from a car accident which occurred at the intersection of 140th Street and 74th Avenue in Surrey when the other vehicle turned left into the path of the claimant’s vehicle. She was 58 year old at the time of the accident and sought compensation for pain and suffering, past income loss, future income loss,…
This personal injury claimant did not accept a reasonable offer to settle and the award at trial was significantly less than the offer. The claimant was offered more than $400,000 to settle his personal injury case before court but he refused. The jury awarded him under $200,000.(Luckett v. Chahal,2017 BCSC 1983) The court found the…
This injury claimant was a front seat passenger travelling northbound on Highway 6, between the towns of New Denver and Playmor Junction in the Kootenay region of B.C. when the car went out of control nearing a corner, crossed the highway and came to rest in a ditch. There were no other vehicles involved in…
ICBC arguments on the failure to attend recommended treatment, mitigation, are often narrow and focused, as displayed in the following $150,000 pain and suffering injury case. ICBC argued that prior substance abuse should result in a low award but the BC Supreme Court decided this ICBC case was worth over $720,000. The car accident was a head-on collision on…
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…