RECENT SUCCESSS 

Our firm’s record of successful motor vehicle injury litigation continued in 2003 and 2004.

Not only did two of our clients obtain record-setting judgments, but in both cases the awards were many times larger than the settlement offers made by the insurance companies.

The first case involved a 47-year-old mill worker who suffered significant lower-back soft tissue injury after his pickup truck was T-boned at a stop sign when an on-coming Ontario car, insured by State Farm, failed to negotiate a curve on the Trans Canada Highway near Donald, B.C. The victim became a client of our firm within two weeks following the collision. State Farm offered to settle for $120,000.00. Following a 23-day trial, our client was awarded $725,205.00 plus interest and costs. State Farm appealed. The B.C. Court of Appeal not only upheld the judgment, but increased it by 15% plus interest and costs to $855,240.00, thereby making it the largest single soft tissue judgment given in B.C. to date. On June 24, 2004 the Supreme Court of Canada rejected State Farm’s application for leave to appeal to that court. Larwill v. Lanham [2001] BCJ No. 2615; [2003] BCJ No. 2627; [2004] S.C.C.A. No. 23.

The second case involved a 40-year-old landscaper who was rear-ended in a three vehicle chain reaction while she was stopped at a traffic light. The impact caused her to develop severe fibromyalgia, a crippling chronic pain condition. Both before and during trial, the defendant’s insurer ICBC, through its Kamloops office, offered our client $70,000.00. Following 14 days of trial in late 2003, the jury awarded our client $1,456,500.00. The largest single component of the jury’s award, non-pecuniary damages of $1,000,000.00, had to be reduced in law by about 70%. This lowered the over-all award to $820,697.00 plus costs. Nonetheless, it was the largest fibromyalgia award to date in British Columbia.

Other 2004 cases successfully handled by our firm included severe whiplash and a rare case of collision-caused psoriatic arthritis. Psoriatic arthritis is a particularly painful and evolving condition. There are relatively few medical studies which examine the link between trauma and the onset of the disease. Our firm negotiated a settlement of over $1,000,000.00.

Robertson & Company is a firm whose practice is restricted to civil and criminal litigation with particular emphasis on serious personal injury claims, employment law, corporate litigation, water law and criminal cases at all levels of court in British Columbia. New clients are welcome. Confidential second opinions can be arranged.

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