ICBC Personal injury caps, wiping out fundamental principles of fairness and compensation. ICBC and the current NDP are poised to extinguish the rights of all British Columbian’s injured in a car accident.
On May 5, 2018 there was a large community rally outside the Surrey office of MLA Jinny Sims opposing the introduction of injury caps. This issue will effect whether Jinny Sims and other MLAs are re-elected.
The “new” system will be designed to eliminate affordable legal advice or legal representation for claimants injured in car accidents. In a perfect world there would be no need for lawyers. The blind goddess of abstract justice would understand the facts and arguments which could be made on behalf of even the most fearful and inarticulate injury claimant. In such an ideal world lawyers would not be necessary.
But in the real world, injury claimants do need lawyers to plead their causes. ICBC benefits from a legal department with many lawyers working for ICBC. These ICBC lawyers do not work for the public or the innocently injured, but rather for ICBC and in defence of the bad driver. ICBC also hires dozens of private lawyers to defend ICBC and their insured, the object being to either deny or significantly reduce the injury claim compensation to the innocent victim.
If you were not aware, ICBC in the last 7 years has pushed many injury claims into court spending more on their lawyers than in any other time in history. This lack of accountability and monopolistic desire to control vulnerable claimants has reached new heights in the introduction of this injury cap legislation.
Without a legal advocate many claimants will be left alone, without the independent advice to protect their rights and ensure their best interests are being addressed. Almost ever injury will be defined by ICBC as a “minor injury” if their past behaviour is an indicator.
The lack of corporate government accountability is out of step with modern democratic principles that encourage equal access to justice. This legislation needs to be withdrawn and the ICBC monopoly needs to be designed to properly compensate the victim and punish the offender.
No access to justice principles have been included in the new injury caps legislation. The legislation reduces the accountability of bad drivers to $5,500 for causing “minor injuries” to innocent motorists. The new NDP vision is yet another mammoth monopoly with even less accountability to the public.
Not only has the Canadian Bar Association spoken out against these changes, medical doctors, therapists, and healthcare providers and many other community groups have also expressed grave disappointment over the proposed caps in personal injury to protect ICBC.
May 5, 2018 also marked to 200th birthday of Karl Marx. It is important to note that whenever a country has tried to turn into a Marxist utopia, which the NDP seem to be espousing, it’s only a matter of time before the whole of the people are, “starving, imprisoned or shot.” This may sound extreme but not so far fetched for the injured even under the current system unable to pay rent or afford a proper meal.