If you’ve been hurt in a car accident, getting better should be your primary concern but it should not come at the expense at your right to fair compensation for your injuries. Did you know that ICBC has an obligation to pay not just for necessary medical expense but also for REHABILITATION, up to a maximum amount of $150,000! This is automatic and doesn’t depend on your convincing ICBC that you are not the party at fault for the accident.
If you have been involved in an accident (as a pedestrian, cyclist or driver) in order to qualify for these benefits all you have to do is fill out a one page application form and give ICBC permission to document your claim by obtaining information from your treators. There is further money available if your injury involves a wage loss and you are completely disabled from working as a result of the accident. In this case you will need to give ICBC additional permission to contact your employer. You could be eligible for up to $300 per week in wage indemnity benefits for as long as you are totally disabled. This is a contractual obligation that ICBC has to almost everyone who has been injured in an accident in BC, and in some cases, anywhere in North America excluding Mexico. Again these financial benefits can flow to you regardless of whether you were 100% at fault for the accident in the first place.
When ICBC came into being the government was concerned with the difficulty in getting insurers to pay for legitimate treatment needs of accident victims —— hence this coverage.
Sound too good to be true? It is. There’s a catch.
ICBC will often use those authorizations you signed to gather information to use against you if you have a “tort” claim, that is a claim apart from medical treatment and wage loss covered in the contract in situations where you are the victim of a careless motorist. This is especially true in recent years where the government has been raiding ICBC coffers to supplement tax revenues. This has put pressure on the operations management of ICBC to generate a “surplus” which they can then spend in ways totally unrelated to motor vehicle accidents. That means that ICBC takes a more aggressive line when preparing your position AGAINST paying your claim for such things as the remainder of your wage loss claim not covered by the $300 a week, the pain and suffering, any residual impairment of your ability to earn a living in the future etc.
It’s all about control of information and you are better off represented by a lawyer who can manage the relevant information that should be presented in support of your claim as well as keeping irrelevant, private information away from prying eyes!
AS YOUR LAWYER I will keep your contractual rights for immediate medical treatment and rehabilitation on ICBC’s radar so that neither avenue of claim is neglected or abused by the government’s new profit centre. First consultation is free. It’s the start to walking away with a cheque that accurately represents a fair settlement of your claim and you saying “I can’t believe it, the Butler did it again!”. Call today at 604-318-3838.
