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…
In this personal injury case ICBC was denied their costs despite the claimant failing to beat a pre-trial offer to settle. ICBC made an offer of $93,500 to settle the lawsuit on behalf of the defendant 2 weeks before trial. The claimant refused the offer and was awarded $91,700 at trial (Zhao v. Yu,2015 BCSC 2342).…
Although inconsistent with a recent case refusing disclosure of the ICBC settlement brief, this case may open the way for claimants to obtain ICBC internal settlement documents for prior car accident claims( Easton v. Chen, 2015 BCSC 2288). However the current state of the law needs to be affirmed by the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal. In this…
Do not do the following when settling with ICBC: (1) Hold back your treatment expenses; (2) Agree to repay your employer’s insurance company after the settlement; (3) Put an inappropriate value on your case; and (4) provide unnecessary and irrelevant documents. You should know that even after settlement the ICBC settlement file will stay with…
This was a court application to force a claimant to disclose the details of a prior auto insurance settlement (Gamble v. Brown,2015 BCSC 1873).This lawsuit arose out of a motor vehicle accident which occurred in Surrey, British Columbia in which there was a claim for injuries and loss suffered by the plaintiff. The matter was set for a…
In personal injury cases there are four different types of offers that can be made to ICBC and insurers: pre-litigation oral offers; pre-litigation written offers; post-litigation oral offers; and post-litigation written offers. We can break down written offers into informal and formal offers to settle. This article will briefly explain how an ICBC claimant can…
The Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for this 15 year old car accident personal injury claim involving soft tissue injury, mild traumatic brain injury and unaccepted ICBC offers of $50,000, $110,00 and $120,000 (Han v. Park, 2015 BCCA 324). A documents binder allowed to be given to the jury included: a police accident report; the…
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…
In this offer to settle slip and fall case the court used its discretion and allowed a claimant that was found 50 % at fault to recover 65% of her costs. The claimant was also awarded double costs after the insurance comany refused to accept a reasonable offer of settlement almost a month before trial…
This unrepresented ICBC injury claimant was awarded $1,500 for two car accident injuries but was required to pay $19,00.00 in legal costs to the other side ( 2015 BCSC 940) after refusing to accept an ICBC offer of $40,000. There were serious credibility and evidence issues in the personal injury case. The amount awarded does not…
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