The settlement of personal injury cases in Canada just got more complex. The Supreme Court of Canada has eked out a new place for mediation contracts, in our legal arsenal of settlement tools, that contain absolute confidentiality clauses preventing parties from proving the terms of a settlement (Union Carbide Canada Inc. v. Bombardier Inc., 2014 SCC 35).…
In this offer to settle a personal injury case Judge Funt has done away with the old rule against all-inclusive offers to settle. That is to say the Judge entertained an $250,000 all-inclusive pre-trial offer of the defendant when awarding double costs to the defendant, changing the law and overturning our Court of Appeal in Helm v. Pattie(1998),…
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 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…
The evidence of an Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, ICBC, adjuster in this car accident personal injury case was rejected by the Supreme Court after she suggested the claimant had concocted her complaints of hand pain and associated numbness.(Kovac v. Moscone,2014 BCSC 259). The accident occurred when the claimant was stopped at a red light at…
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…
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…