Personal Injury Law Blog

COURT DIFFERENTIATES BETWEEN “ALERTED” AND “UNALERTED” RESPONSE TIME

posted Monday, July 26, 2010 by Luke Zacharias and Jordan Forsyth

In the case Walter v. Plummer, 2010 BCSC 1017 (“Walter”), released on July 20, 2010, the Court examined the role of scientific evidence relating to driver reaction time in the context of liability apportionment. The case of Walter dealt with an accident in which the Plaintiff was struck by the Defendant’s motorcycle as he jaywalked across a street near a secondary school.

After largely dismissing evidence purporting to reconstruct the impact some eight years after the accident, the Court held that “of interest, however, and relevant to the assessment of negligence more generally, are the categories of drivers’ states of alertness when measuring perception-response time” (at para. 27)....

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Court Finds no Failure to Mitigate Where Reasonable Efforts Made

posted Tuesday, July 20, 2010 by Luke Zacharias and Jordan Forsyth

In the case of Furness v. Guest, 2010 BCSC 974 (“Furness”), released on July 12, 2010, the Plaintiff was awarded $40,000 in non-pecuniary damages.

The Plaintiff was struck by a large tractor truck driven by the Defendant after stepping into a crosswalk while the “don’t walk” sign was flashing. Although the amount awarded was ultimately reduced due to contributory negligence, the Court also had to decide whether it was appropriate to reduce the award for a failure to mitigate.

The Defendant alleged that the Plaintiff failed to do the home exercises...

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Facebook Photographs Considered at Trial

posted Tuesday, July 13, 2010 by Luke Zacharias and Jordan Forsyth

In the case Cikojevic v. Timm, 2010 BCSC 800 (“Cikojevic”), released June 8, 2010, the Court considered the evidentiary role of photographs which were downloaded from the Plaintiff’s Facebook page.

The cause of action in Cikojevic arose out of a mild traumatic brain injury and soft tissue injuries suffered in a motor vehicle accident in August 2002. The Plaintiff, who had just turned 17 at the time, had her head thrown “into the windshield hard enough to star it...

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Have a comment? We would welcome your comments directly. lzacharias@bakernewby.com