Costs denied due to Offer to Settle
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 and the trial was heard over five days. The defendants made on offer to settle of $35,000 but the claimant refused to accept the offer and was awarded over $65,000.00 by the Supreme Court of BC.

In awarding the claimant an additional $14,000 toward his legal costs the judge stated,

[9] Although this case was not conducted as subject to the Fast Track rules pursuant to Rule 15-1, I find that costs must be awarded pursuant to that Rule because of the provisions of Rule 14-1(1)(f): see Codling v. Sosnowsky, 2013 BCSC 1220. I find that there are special circumstances in the present case which warrant an award of additional costs, in particular the factual complexity of the issues which necessitated a five-day trial to address. Accordingly the appropriate award is $11,000 plus $3,000, representing two additional days at $1,500 per day for a total of $14,000.

Despite losing the case the defendants refused to pay the costs for the claimant’s medical experts to attend trial. The judge did not hesitate in ordered the defendants to pay these costs stating,

   In my view it was reasonable to secure the evidence of these three experts in the context of the matters at issue in the litigation. As noted, I found their evidence to be helpful and consistent with their responsibilities as experts providing opinion evidence to the court. The plaintiff should be allowed to recover the disbursements associated with this evidence and these reports.

Posted by Vancouver Personal Injury Lawyer Mr. Renn A. Holness, B.A. LL.B.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post comment