Click on the terms below to view their respective descriptions.
A sworn statement of fact or statement of fact and belief. They may be taken from witnesses during the course of investigating an accident or may be used to answer interrogatories which are written questions submitted to the opposing party in a lawsuit.
The removal of the whole or part of a leg/arm or hand/foot. Amputations always result in some form of permanent disability and compensation will be determined according to how this affects the heads of damages normally claimed in a car accident.
It is not uncommon for the trauma of a car accident to trigger underlying symptoms of arthritis that you may not have known were there. Even if arthritis is a pre-existing condition (something you had to deal with before the accident) the accident can exacerbate your condition (i.e., make the symptoms worse). You may be entitled to damages if the injuries you sustain make a condition you already had, or that you were prone to, worse. However, the worsening of your condition must be documented and connected to the accident (See also: Pre-existing Conditions and the “Thin Skull Rule”).
Doctors that deal with arthritis are called Rheumatologists.
A bone scan is a special X-ray that is enhanced by a contrast agent. It is used to help diagnose the cause or location of unexplained bone pain or inflammation, such as ongoing low back pain, broken bones or stress fractures that cannot be seen clearly on a normal X-ray. In this procedure a dye is first ingested which finds its way through the body’s blood stream. The dye shows up on the X-ray, indicating areas in the bones where there is increased blood activity. This increased activity may indicate a healing fracture or injury that would otherwise not show up on an X-ray.
Brain damage is classified as mild, moderate or severe.
Mild brain injury can be difficult to prove. It may result from a blow to the head, with no (or minimal) loss of consciousness. It may leave no permanent effects, or can result in lasting deficits that impair your ability to think, remember, concentrate, work, control your emotions and function in society.
Moderate brain injury may be caused by a blow to the head accompanied by extended loss of consciousness and often results in permanent deficits that disrupt or impair your normal ability to think, remember, concentrate, work, control your emotions and function in society.
Severe brain injury is the most catastrophic and is the easiest to prove in a lawsuit. It results in permanent deficits that disable your ability to think, remember, concentrate, work, control your emotions and function in society.
Reports from neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuropsychologists, occupational therapists, vocational consultants, economists and other specialists are normally required to evidence the injury.
Catastrophic injuries are any injuries that have serious, long-term physical and emotional impacts. Common catastrophic injuries include back, neck, and brain injuries, burns, organ damage, paraplegia, and quadriplegia.
Neck injuries can be soft tissue injuries or catastrophic injuries that result in full or partial quadriplegia. The impact depends on the location and severity of the trauma.
Chronic pain is sometimes referred to as chronic pain syndrome, regionalized pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, or fibrositis.
These are the notes that medical practitioners (like doctors, physiotherapists, massage therapists or chiropractors) keep of your visits. Medical practitioners vary in their ability to record complete and accurate clinical notes. Assume that everything you tell your treatment providers will show up in their clinical notes. This should NOT stop you from telling your doctors or treatment providers everything that is relevant to your condition – they need that information to help you and if you leave out or exaggerate information you can be sure that ICBC will flag this and use it to suggest you are lying about your injuries. You can also expect that ICBC will make every effort to obtain all the clinical records of any treatment provider that you have seen both before and after your accident. You can further expect that ICBC will review your clinical records in detail to try to find any inconsistencies, lack of reporting or information that may minimize your claim. Therefore, it is very important that you tell your doctor everything and do not exaggerate.
Your job is to provide as much clear information as you can about your symptoms and the progress of your recovery to maximize their opportunity to reflect your condition in their notes. A systematic approach each time you go to the doctor provides a consistent record and will help you make sure your information is comprehensive and accurate.
A computerized tomography scan (CT Scan) or a computerized axial tomography scan (CAT Scan) is a series of computerized X-ray pictures, usually of the spine. The X-ray pictures are done in “slices” so that fine details can be seen. They help doctors to diagnose diseases or injuries that can’t be diagnosed by ordinary X-rays. CT Scans are useful to examine problems with disc or vertebrae in the spine.
Include broken or lost teeth, extractions required because of an accident, TMJ (jaw) problems, and anything that requires treatment by a dentist, orthodontist or orthodontic surgeon.
Depositions are out of court statements that are part of the examination for discovery process in which parties to a lawsuit gather information in preparation for trial. One form of deposition is an affidavit which is a sworn statement about direct knowledge or direct knowledge and belief of certain facts.
Some people suffer emotional effects from car accidents. They may have nightmares, anxiety, nervousness, fear of driving, fear of being a passenger, fear of cars, or depression. Prior emotional illness or depression can make people more vulnerable to this sort of injury, and may influence how fast recovery takes place. We can potentially recover compensation for these kinds of injuries. It is important to see your family doctor to discuss these kinds of problems early on and to follow any advice your doctor gives you, particularly regarding counselling or prescribed drugs. There are various terms that refer to some of these emotional injuries, such as: anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder.
Examinations for discovery are a procedure whereby ICBC’s lawyer is provided the opportunity to question you regarding the nature and extent of your injuries, your treatment, who treated you, how the accident happened, and your condition etc. This is a process that takes place in the presence of a court reporter and everything that you say is under oath and taken down by the court reporter and produced in the form of a transcript. This is an “out of the courtroom process” which is part of the litigation process for both defendants and plaintiffs in a personal injury lawsuit. After the facts have been gathered, either we or the Defendants lawyer will arrange for an examination for discovery. In certain circumstances, an examination of the defendant will also be arranged. We are there with you to ensure that you are not asked to answer inappropriate questions. We will also give the Defendant’s lawyer copies of the documents we have that relate to the lawsuit. You will be asked to describe all relevant documents you once had or had access to. We will prepare you for examinations for discovery.
Include scarring and disfigurement caused by burns, lacerations, broken bones, etc. that usually require the intervention of a plastic surgeon.
Is a condition characterized by chronic muscular pain in many places, extreme fatigue, stiffness in the morning and difficulty getting a refreshing sleep. People with the condition may have headaches, concentration and memory problems, dizziness, numbness and sometimes abdominal cramping. It is traditionally diagnosed by a rheumatologist who looks for the presence of intense pain in at least 11 out of 18 soft tissue areas recognized as trigger points.
Refer primarily to broken bones anywhere in the body, dislocations, torn ligaments, strains, sprains and so forth. These kinds of injuries may require assessment and treatment from an orthopedic specialist or physiotherapist.
This is an evaluation usually performed by an occupational therapist (an OT) with special training as a Certified Work Capacity Evaluator. It consists of a series of tests conducted over the course of a day or more that are designed to provide objective information on whether you can perform a certain level of activity or work.
ICBC may also order a Functional Capacity Assessment to evaluate an injured person’s credibility. This is because part of the OTs protocol includes testing to make sure you are giving maximum effort during testing and not exaggerating your problems. Therefore, it is critical that if you undergo an assessment that you do not exaggerate or mislead because it could undermine the positive evidence that is collected.
The assessment can be done at the OT’s office but is sometimes done in a work place setting or in your home. The OT will put you through extensive testing involving varied, real life situations over the course of the day, which simulate work and activities. The purpose is to gather information about your physical functional limits and provide a report on whether you are capable of sedentary, light, medium or heavy work or activities.
If you are applying for medical benefits from ICBC under your own insurance (Part 7 Benefits) the Insurance (Vehicle) Regulation (s. 99) gives ICBC the right to request that you see a medical practitioner (doctor), dentist, physiotherapist or chiropractor of their choice for a medical examination. This is referred to as an independent medical examination or IME. ICBC commonly bases the decision on what Part 7 benefit to pay on this IME and if you don’t go, ICBC can deny you benefits altogether.
ICBC tends to use a select number of doctors to conduct IMEs and it is not uncommon for their reports to conflict with what your family doctor has to say about your injuries. If that happens ICBC sometimes cuts off payment of treatment benefits even if your doctor disagrees.
If you are required to attend an IME be aware that the ICBC examiner will have reviewed all your clinical records from treatment providers from before and after your accident including information on your health history, pre-existing conditions and events that have occurred since your accident. Therefore, it is important to be open and honest about disclosing this information and if you are asked an open-ended question about your medical history do your best to provide a full account of all potentially important information. The last thing you want is to leave the impression that you are hiding information. If you don’t fully disclose you can be sure the ICBC doctor will emphasize that you were not cooperative or fully honest about your injuries. This can damage your credibility and affect the way ICBC views your claim. Similarly, be careful not to exaggerate your injury complaints or the impact they have on your physical abilities. ICBC doctors tend to focus on objective signs of injury (broken bones, injuries that show up on X-rays or MRIs) and are unlikely to be independently convinced by subjective complaints from you about your pain or the seriousness of your injuries.
The physical examination is intended to test whether you are exaggerating your complaints. Be aware that the ICBC doctor is trained to assess whether you are giving accurate feedback during your exam. Be cooperative and descriptive. Telling them something “hurts” is not very helpful. Try to explain accurately what you are feeling (e.g., shooting pain up your back that starts at one point and ends at another, you feel a clicking in your shoulder when you extend your arm past a certain point, you start to feel tightening when you turn your head past a certain point). If you feel pain during the examination, give them information on whether the pain is mild, moderate or severe, sharp and in a specific spot or aching in a general location that you can identify by pointing.
X-rays, CT or CAT scans, bone scans, MRI’s and ultrasounds are all types of diagnostic tools that may be used help determine the nature of the injury you have sustained. Such procedures may be covered by provincial health insurance, but only if your family doctor or a specialist recommends them. Therefore, it is important to see your family doctor regularly and describe your symptoms thoroughly. Don’t assume that a symptom has nothing to do with your accident – let a health care professional evaluate that issue.
After a lawsuit is started, but before trial, we or the Defendant’s lawyer sometimes need to ask the court to decide (or rule on) certain things regarding how the case should be handled or concerning requests for documents or evidence that the other side has not provided. The result is a court order. Going to court to ask for an order is called making an interim application.
The blunt force of hitting the steer wheel or interior of a vehicle during a motor vehicle accident can lead to a significant amount of traumatic internal injury. Be aware that internal injuries can be very serious (even fatal) and they do not always show up right away. Therefore, it is very important that you get medical attention as soon as possible after your accident to confirm there are no internal injuries requiring treatment.
Liability essentially means fault or blame for causing the accident. Disputes over liability are common and the assessment of liability is very important if you have been seriously injured in an accident and plan to seek damages against the party you believe is responsible for causing the accident. Disputes often arise when there are no independent third party witnesses or when both parties have some responsibility for the accident. Also, liability can affect your future safe driving discounts and reduce the amount of damages you may claim.
Limitations periods are time limits placed on your entitlement to do certain things such as applying for Part 7 Accident Benefits, suing a municipality, starting a law suit against ICBC for denying Accident Benefits or against the driver you think is responsible for your accident. They arise from the Limitation Act and other motor vehicle legislation, regulations and statutes and from contracts of insurance. It is very important that you find out what time limits apply to your case as soon as possible after a car accident because if you miss the time limit you may be denied the right to do certain things or to claim compensation for your injuries. Do not wait until the last minute to talk to a lawyer to find out about time limits. Getting legal advice on your situation early is the best way to protect yourself.
ICBC sometimes refuses to compensate an injured person (even with Part 7 Accident Benefits) if the damage to the vehicle you were in is insignificant. While courts are not guided by this policy – preferring to award damages on the basis of credibility and medical evidence, often the case has to be taken to trial to get compensation. We sometimes take these cases if we think ICBC is wrong, for example, where the vehicle that hit you has substantial damage even though yours does not.
Minors are people under the age of 19. Minors have the same rights as anyone else to recover damages for their injuries but they need to be assisted by an adult guardian (normally a parent) in legal dealings – this person is referred to as a guardian ad litem. Even though the limitation period (the time in which to start a law suit) may be longer for a minor, we recommend you get legal advice for a minor immediately. The process also involves the Public Guardian and Trustee. These cases are more procedurally complex because of the additional parties involved and the obligation to make additional submissions and receive court approval on settlements. It is therefore a good idea to have a lawyer to help you in this situation.
An MRI is a tool to diagnose injuries that uses electromagnetic energy to examine areas of the body. Certain atoms are subjected to a radio frequency pulse, causing them to absorb and release energy, which is passed through a radio frequency receiver, and transformed into an image. This technique is valuable in providing soft-tissue images of the central nervous system and musculoskeletal systems, and is useful in examining soft tissue, swelling and the pooling of blood or other fluids in the body.
Orthopedic injures are generally broken bones (e.g., legs, arms, ribs) and are dealt with by emergency room doctors and orthopedic specialists.
Paraplegia is paralysis or impairment of the motor or sensory functions of your lower limbs. It can be one result of a spinal cord injury to the thoracic, lumbar or sacral regions. If both arms are also affected then the condition is known as quadriplegia. Both paraplegia and quadriplegia are serious, debilitating injuries that often require ongoing future medial care and treatment.
If you get injured or killed in a motor vehicle accident, even if you are at fault, you may still be entitled to ICBC Accident Benefits, often called Part 7 Benefits (because they are described in Part 7 of the regulations to the Insurance (Motor Vehicle) Act) or “no-fault benefits”. These benefits are intended to:
Be aware there are strict time limits on the application process. Having a lawyer helps insure you do not miss any critical deadlines and that your paper work is complete and properly filed with ICBC or your insurance company.
Note that accident benefits are separate from compensation for your injury that you may be entitled to claim from an “at-fault” driver which involves starting a lawsuit.
Pre-existing injuries and conditions are things that you were coping with before your accident. Sometimes you may not even be aware they are present. They may reduce compensation if it is proven that they were causing symptoms at the time of your accident. However, in general the courts accept that the defendant in a personal injury claim must “take his victim as he finds him,” – this is sometimes referred to as the “Thin Skull Rule.” It means that the “at-fault” driver should be held responsible for the damage he causes, even if the victim is more prone to harm or the injuries ended up being more severe because of a pre-existing injury or condition.
Many people think that if they have a prior injury or conditions (like arthritis for example) that they are not entitled to compensation if injured in a car accident because they are already “injured”. This is not always the case and you should not assume that you cannot recover damages if that condition or injury is aggravated because of a motor vehicle accident or when your recovery time is prolonged or if the injury suffered in the accident was worse because of a pre-existing injury or condition. Talk to us about your situation and we will give you our opinion on what you can expect.
Soft tissue injuries are common in vehicle accidents and may include damage to muscles, ligaments and tendons throughout the body. Side effects can include pain, swelling, bruising, loss of use or full function of part of your body.
This type of injury varies depending on the type, level and severity of the injury but generally they fall into one of two general categories: complete injury (function below the neurological (brain) level is lost – total loss of motor and sensory function below a specific spinal level (cervical, thoracic etc) or incomplete injuries (some sensation or functional ability is retained). In addition to impairment of functioning and sensation below the level of the injury, people with this type of injury often experience other complications related to the functional impairment.
The defendant must take the plaintiff (the injury victim) as he finds him or her. Meaning that if they injure someone who is more prone to serious consequences because of a pre-existing injury or condition, provided that that pre-existing injury or condition was not causing symptoms at the time of the accident, then the defendant is fully liable for any symptoms caused by the accident (even though they may be more serious because of the pre-existing injury or condition). The theory is that “but for” the accident the plaintiff would not be symptomatic.
If you are a worker (in the course of your work day activities) at the time of a vehicle accident and you pursue compensation through WorkSafeBC, this will have a significant impact on your ICBC claim. The reason is that WorkSafeBC has a statutory right to recover all the money they paid out to you on your WorkSafeBC claim regardless of what you are able to recover on your ICBC claim. In addition, WorkSafeBC is also entitled to collect a percentage-based administration fee on whatever they paid out to you. These cases can be complex and it is helpful to consult a lawyer to determine your rights and entitlement given the circumstances.
Whiplash, sometimes called a soft issue injury (can include injury to your tendons, muscles and ligaments), is the most common injury suffered in a car accident. Whiplash occurs when impact forces, like the jolt from a rear end collision, act on your spine and the musculature from your neck to your tailbone. The effects can be immediate or delayed and can include: stiffness, pain, restricted mobility of your limbs, neck and torso, headaches, fatigue, and nausea. Recovery can be prolonged and in some cases people never recover completely. Age, physical conditioning, and general health as well as any pre-existing conditions (like arthritis) all play a part in recovery.
The difficulty with soft tissue injury claims is that there may not be a lot of physical signs (like broken bones, herniated discs or dislocations) which show that an injury has occurred. The nature of the injury is usually based on what you tell your medical practitioner about the pain you are experiencing from the injury. This is another reason why it is very important to provide complete and accurate information to your doctor or treatment provider.
Whiplash injuries are usually categorized as mild, moderate or severe. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of consistency in how different doctors, therapists and ICBC adjusters will categorize your injury.
An X-ray is commonly used by doctors to confirm or rule out an orthopedic (bone) injury or a neurological injury. An X-ray is made by directing electromagnetic radiation through your body and onto a film, which is then developed much like a photograph. An X-ray will show if bones are broken or out of place but is of limited assistance in diagnosing the presence or extent of soft tissue injuries.
