ICBC doctors should always be interviewed

Although it is not necessarily standard practice with all lawyers, I always consider interviewing the doctor ICBC hires to assess your injuries.

Once your law suit is well underway it is standard procedure for your lawyer to ask your family doctor and possibly a number of other specialists to prepare medical-legal reports. These reports help strengthen your case and indicate to ICBC what those doctors will say in court if the matter goes to trial. In order to counter these reports ICBC will typically have you assessed by one of their own doctors. On most occasions we can predict in advance what these doctors will say. However it always benefits to to have your lawyer interview them.

A case in point:

Not long ago I was representing a client who had been struck by a car while walking through a controlled intersection with the green light. The driver was clearly in the wrong. ICBC admitted liability, and the only issue on the table was the worth of my client's total claim. His leg had been badly broken and he was unable to work for a number of months. ICBC and I generally agreed on the worth of the injury itself and on the money my client had lost while he was unable to work during his recovery period. I wasn't satisfied, however, as I also wanted to get my client significant money for his future loss of income. A future loss of income claim would only be available to my client if we could show that he would be unable to work in the future as a direct result of the injury.

The ICBC doctor's report clearly indicated that there would be no future loss of income. The doctor went on to indicate that my client had a pre-existing condition which, in and of itself, would almost certainly result in my client ceasing to be able to work by the time he was in his mid-50s. With the ICBC lawyer's permission, I interviewed their doctor in the presence of the ICBC lawyer. At the end of a fairly short interview, it was remarkably easy for me to obtain an admission from the doctor: although the pre-existing condition would have resulted in an inability to work by the time my client was in his mid-50s, the motor vehicle accident would accelerate this inability by at least five years. Given the fact that my client was earning in excess of $40,000 per year, I suddenly had the ability to increase my clients settlement by $200,000!

The moral of the story: Even if ICBC's doctor writes a report which appears weaken your case, it's always a good idea to have your lawyer interview that doctor.