People injured in a motor vehicle collision in British Columbia may have an ICBC Claim for their injuries if the accident was caused by the fault of another driver. If you or a family member were injured in a pedestrian accident, cycling accident, or motor vehicle accident due to the negligence of another driver, you may have a claim for compensation for the pain and suffering that your accident injury has caused you to go through.
The legal term for pain and suffering compensation is "non-pecuniary damages". Every person who is injured in a car accident in British Columbia is going to be affected differently. One person in the car accident may suffer a whiplash injury and have an ICBC claim for soft tissue injury to their neck and back. A different person in the same car accident may suffer a spinal injury and have an ICBC claim for paraplegia or quadraplegia. Suffice to say, every claim is different from the next, and the Greater Vancouver ICBC personal injury lawyers at Becker Lavin & Wessler can help guide you through that process and make sure that you are getting fair compensation for your pain and suffering.
The amount of an award for non-pecuniary damage in a car accident injury case does not depend alone upon the seriousness of the injury, but upon its ability to fix the condition of the injured person considering his or her particular situation. How serious the injury is, is not the deciding factor. An appreciation of the individual's loss is the key. In dealing with pain and suffering damages, it is impossible to develop a chart of what type of injury is worth what amount of compensation. The amount will vary in each case to meet the specific circumstances of the individual case. "Putting a face to the ICBC claim number" and telling the tale of how YOUR specific injuries affected YOUR life is what the ICBC auto accident personal injury lawyers at Becker Lavin & Wessler strive for in every case. We do this to help convince the insurance company, and if need be, the court, why the compensation we are seeking for your ICBC injury is fair and reasonable.
In the 2006 decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal in the case of Stapley v. Hejslet, the three-judge panel was asked to assess whether a jury award for non-pecuniary damages was too high. They also listed factors that are a useful starting point to help tell the tale of how your motor vehicle accident injury affected your life and that of your family.
The inexhaustive list of common factors that influence an award of non-pecuniary damages includes:
(a) age of the plaintiff;
(b) nature of the injury;
(c) severity and duration of pain;
(d) disability;
(e) emotional suffering; and
(f) loss or impairment of life;
(g) impairment of family, marital and social relationships;
(h) impairment of physical and mental abilities;
(i) loss of lifestyle; and
(j) the plaintiff's stoicism (as a factor that should not, generally speaking, penalize the plaintiff).
If you or a family member have been injured in a car crash, motorcycle accident, pedestrian collision, or a cycling accident, the personal injury lawyers in Burnaby at Becker Lavin & Wessler can help determine what is an appropriate amount to compensate you for the effects that your injury has had on you.
Labels: non-pecuniary, pain, Stapley v. Hejslet, suffering
