The case law has gone back and forth over the last few years regarding whether the interest that is charged on money borrowed to cover the cost of disbursements is recoverable. In the circumstances of a recently reported case ( link ), the interest was not recoverable.
Disbursements are money that a litigant (though usually the lawyer for the party) pays to other people to help prove the case. These can be paying money to a medical office to cover the cost of copying medical records, or money paid to a doctor for the time that they take to write a medical-legal report. It costs $200 to start a court case in the Supreme Court of B.C. It costs $200 to set an action down for trial. Disbursements can become very large on a complex case, often in the tens of thousands of dollars.
The Vancouver personal injury lawyers at Becker Lavin & Wessler DO NOT charge interest on disbursements incurred in your motor vehicle injury claim. This can have a significant advantage to you as you would not bear the expense of borrowing money to pursue your case, and you wouldn't have to pay interest back to a third-party settlement lender which is usually at a significantly high percentage. The interest in the reported case above was over $10,000. Paying interest eats away at the compensation that you recover in your case. That compensation is supposed to help give you back your dignity and your lifestyle that you lost due to your car accident injuries.
