Judge Cannot Change Masters Costs Award in Personal Injury Case

A Supreme Court Master refused to force this injury claimant to submit to an ICBC medical examination on two separate occasions and the Master awarded her costs.  The judge made a substantial award of damages in this car accident injury case and awarded the claimant  to costs at Scale B but denied her costs of defending these two…

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Rejecting $100,000 Offer and Firing Lawyer Leads to $50,000 Award

The personal injury lawyer hired by this claimant was able to negotiate an offer to settle of $100,000 with ICBC in a car accident injury case. However, the claimant was not happy with this amount,  fired the lawyer and went to court himself. The court awarded the claimant $50,000 (2015 BCSC 1504) and ordered the claimant to pay the lawyer his proper fees for…

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Claimant Must Pay ICBC Legal Fees for Failure to Accept Settlement Offer

When this personal injury decision came out awarding $36,042.30  I called it A Case Study into What Not to Do in an ICBC Injury Claim. The ICBC claimant had sought an award of damages exceeding $2 million and after 33 days in trial almost all of the claims of loss were dismissed. In this follow up decision the Judge awarded ICBC…

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Cost of Medical Experts and Legal Fees Awarded to Injury Claimant

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…

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Offers to Settle Considered after 50% Fault for Car Accident

There were  two offers to settle made by the claimant in this case: one in the amount of $800,000 before trial and the other during the course of trial, in the amount of $1,010,000.  The defendant offered to settle for $55,000.00. At trial the claimant was found 50% at fault for a car accident and…

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Double Costs for not accepting Offer Unfair to the Injured

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…

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ICBC rejects $65,000 offer to Settle and Must pay $193,500 plus Experts Fees

In this motor vehicle accident injury case the claimant offered to settle for $65,000.00 more than two weeks before trial and that offer was rejected.  The insurance Corporation of British Columbia, ICBC, is the mandatory third party insurer for all BC drivers and in this case the defendant was ordered to pay over $193,500 plus double…

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Pedestrian Wins Appeal But no Increased or Special Costs

This personal injury Claimant was walking through a parking lot of a strip mall in Cranbrook, B.C. when he was struck by and injured by a motor vehicle. The trial judge concluded that the driver was 33 1/3% liable and the Claimant was 66 2/3% liable for the accident.  However the Claimant’s appeal was allowed and…

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ICBC Settlement Offers now to Factor in Insurance Limits

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…

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