05/29/2024
Vaughn Palmer:
B.C. premier brushes off complaints from accident victims over ICBC's no-fault insurance
Opinion: David Eby insists new ICBC system takes from lawyers not victims
VICTORIA — Premier David Eby continues to downplay the plight of the victims of his no-fault auto insurance reform, suggesting their best hope for relief awaits a full-blown review of the system two years from now.
Eby gave the brush off recently, when a reporter brought up complaints from people who’ve sustained life-altering injuries in automobile accidents.
They’ve not been adequately compensated under the so-called enhanced care system brought in by Eby when he was serving as cabinet minister for ICBC in 2021. What did the premier make of their concerns?
Not much, it turned out.
“One of the commitments we made when we brought in the new system was we would do a review at the five-year mark,” Eby replied.
“Of course, issues have come up with the new system as we move forward that we had to address — issues around pedestrians and cyclists and other pieces.
“We have addressed those issues, but there may be others. And so by doing that review, we’ll be able to close any additional gaps that may be in place.”
There MAY be other gaps in coverage?
Eby is usually well briefed. He must know some of the horror stories that have emerged during the first three years under no fault.
The accident victims who’ve been victimized a second time by ICBC’s arbitrary and inadequate settlements. Then a third time on learning that under the no-fault regime, they had little leeway to seek redress through the courts.
Take the case of Victoria lawyer Tim Schober. He was left a quadriplegic when hit by a vehicle while cycling in August 2021, making him one of the first victims of a life-altering accident to be subjected to a settlement under the misnamed “enhanced care.”
He told his story recently to reporter Cindy E. Harnett of the Victoria Times Colonist.
“Schober needs two caregivers for a morning and afternoon shift,” she reported. “It’s a two-hour morning regime to get him cleaned and dressed in bed, transitioned via a sling and hoisted into his chair, and fed.
“The evening care aide must take care to ensure there’s not a wrinkle in his bed sheet and that pillows prop up his body in such a way that over eight hours of immobility, bed sores don’t form. There’s a colostomy bag to deal with and a breathing machine at night to ease his diminished lung capacity.”
Yet ICBC gave him a mere $264,000 as a one-time lump sum payment for permanent impairment. There was no compensation for counselling or lost wages for his wife, Lisa, who can no longer work.
“Our lives have been turned upside down,” she told the reporter. “I must submit receipts for everything we purchase for my husband related to his accident to an ICBC adjuster, who can then reject or approve the receipt.”
Though no fault is crafted to preclude routine court challenges of ICBC’s take it or leave it settlements, Schober has nevertheless gone to court, in a lawsuit filed with the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C.
In the interim, he points out that ICBC’s much improved bottom line has been achieved in part at the expense of victims like himself.
Eby was quick to cite ICBC’s improved financial results in the same news conference where he suggested that further reforms to no fault would have to await the review scheduled for 2026.
“We are now in our sixth year of zero per cent increases on basic insurance,” he boasted. “That is how significant these reforms are, and the savings they are generating for British Columbians of almost $500 per person.”
The latest payout, announced by Eby himself in an election-year giveaway, was a $110 rebate.
But far from acknowledging that any part of it was accrued at the expense of victims like Schober, the premier suggested that every penny was wrenched from the grasping hands of personal injury lawyers.
“The beneficiaries of the old system were lawyers. It was not drivers who paid double digit increases every year. It was not people who were injured in crashes who paid 30 per cent of the reward that was supposed to pay for their care for the rest of their life, in legal fees, at least.
“That amount does not include the money that was loaned to them by the lawyers as they went through multi-year court battles waiting for money to pay for their care.”
This was not a matter of any personal animosity toward lawyers, Eby hastened to add.
“I’m the son of a personal injury lawyer, so there’s no inherent prejudice here,” he said, not hesitating to bite the hand that fed him.
Eby closed by attacking B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad for proposing a limited exemption from no fault for victims of life-altering injuries. Rustad would allow them to pursue “fair and reasonable compensation” in the courts.
“A gift to personal injury lawyers,” sneered Eby, who accused Rustad of giving away “an important mark of his character.”
Eby has also given away a mark of his character, with his apparent lack of sympathy for the accident victims that Rustad proposes to help.
