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…
In this sensationally important personal injury case the Court of Appeal has made it very clear that consulting reports must substantially comply with the Rules to be admissible as expert reports (Healey v. Chung, 2015 BCCA 38). This makes it very difficult for the personal injury claimant to get opinion evidence into court as “clinical records” are…
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…
The Insurance Corporation of BC, ICBC, seems to have adopted the practice of settling ICBC claims and then fighting the claimant’s necessary and reasonable litigation expenses after settlement. However, the following ICBC injury claim stands for the proposition that claimants have a duty to ensure that all areas of the injury claim are supported with…
In this personal injury case the Claimant made an offer to settle which was rejected by ICBC (the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia). He proceeding to trial and beat his offer by $920. However the Judge was not satisfied that the claimant’s formal offer was one that ICBC ought reasonably to have accepted (Saopaseuth v.…
It is my experience as a lawyer representing car accident victims that ICBC and other insurance companies regularly deny all the facts alleged by an injury claimant in a lawsuit with little or no explanation. This type of response to a civil claim appears to no longer suffice as adequate pleadings in British Columbia. In fact…
During the course of this personal injury trial, the at fault driver, the defendant, sought to tender an expert medicolegal report and video deposition of an otolaryngologist (Lawrence v. Parr,2014 BCSC 2004). The claimant challenged the admissibility of the report on the basis that it did not comply with the mandatory conditions as set out in…
The injury claimant was found to be totally at fault for a car accident at the intersection of King George Boulevard and 68th Avenue, in Surrey, B.C. His personal injury claim was therefore dismissed and today I review the decision of the Judge regarding the case costs awarded to the successful defendant (Henry v. Bennett, 2014 BCSC…
ICBC has a statutory monopoly on third party automobile liability insurance coverage in BC and appears to be manipulating this monopoly in ominous new ways, testing our courts sense of justice. The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia has been systematically refusing to pay for necessary medical and other expert opinion upon settlement of cases to…
Personal injury lawyers in Vancouver are in often required to travel to remote areas of British Columbia to examine witnesses. This Supreme Court case however may help change all that. In Schroeder v. Sweeney, 2014 BCSC 1843 the defendant was trying to force the Claimant to attend Examination for Discovery at an Okanagan court reporters office.…