Auto accident injuries can be devastating to a person’s life. The way in which an individual person is affected will differ from person to person. Consequently, compensation for personal injuries due to a car accident in British Columbia depends on the person and how their life is affected.
There is no question that money does not fix the life of an injured person, it is an imperfect replacement. That being said, money (also known as damages) is the way because accident victims are compensated for their injuries. Compensation is obtained from the at-fault driver, almost always paid for by his insurance company, ICBC.
The goal of monetary compensation is to restore an injured person’s life to as close as possible if the injuries had not occurred. What this requires is an assessment of the losses of an injured person.
The compensation due to injured people in BC is evaluated by personal injury attorneys and/or the court into categories. Those categories are as follows:
1. Pain and suffering;
2. Loss of income;
3. Lost opportunity;
4. Medical and other expenses;
5. Home assistance.
Pain and suffering
This is perhaps the most imperfect compensator. How is an individual’s pain and suffering measured or priced? It is impossible, however, British Columbia courts do it every day in an effort to provide and compensate something. Money is not only an imperfect compensator for pain and suffering, but our laws were developed in Canada to cap or limit the maximum amount of money that can be paid for pain and suffering. Currently that cap is approximately $311,000. I say currently, because the limit adjusts over time to reflect increases in the cost of living.
Loss of income
The work lives of many car accident victims are affected. Employment may be affected as follows:
Not Affected: You do not need to take time off work.
Temporary free time from work.
Retraining for a different job if injuries prevent return to original job.
Not being able to work at all.
Assessing lost earnings is also not an easy task for the courts, especially if the future employment of a car accident victim is uncertain. However, it is done with the help of medical and vocational experts who give opinions about returning to work, retraining, or whether a person will not be able to work at all.
When evaluating lost income, you should account for past and future income losses and try to offset all foreseeable income losses.
Opportunity losses
This loss is closely related to the loss of income and is sometimes simply included in a loss of income assessment. However, sometimes injuries cause someone to miss out on available financial opportunities that most likely would not have been obtained if the car accident had not occurred. An example is losing the opportunity to be a concert pianist or professional athlete. Once again, experts are brought in to give opinions on the probability that an injured person would have achieved the ‘missed opportunity’ and then the amount of the loss is assessed.
Medical expenses and others
Injuries often require treatment, whether it’s massage therapy, physical therapy, medication, surgery, or other forms of treatment, all of which cost money. Treatment is sometimes required in the future, after a claim is resolved. This means that injured people are entitled to be reimbursed for expenses related to the accident, as well as money to pay for reasonably foreseeable expenses.
Home help
Like work capacity, injuries can prevent people from caring for their home and garden. Sometimes this loss is temporary, other times it is permanent. Again, with the help of medical professionals, injury attorneys assess what kind of in-home assistance is needed, for how long, and how much it costs.
Each injured person is uniquely affected by injuries, however, as you can see from the above, the compensation assessment is distilled into the common areas of everyone’s life: pain and suffering, income, expenses, and assistance in home. Is money a perfect replacement for what is lost after a car accident? No problem; but it is the compensation method used in BC