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Things that make you say WTF?

Reccos

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"The award is based on the fact that the judge found that she was destined to be a very, very successful lawyer," said Danicek's lawyer Joe Murphy. "As a result of the injuries she suffered … she will never be able to work as a successful lawyer."

Read more: CBC News - British Columbia - Lawyer awarded $6M in dance collision

Not a scam but for me it is a reach to say this when she was still articling at the time of the incident:

"Colleagues testified she had potential as "a rainmaker," a lawyer who could bring in new clients."

In a personal injury claim one of the heads of damage is future wage loss. If he had knocked over a 31 year file clerk the future wage loss would not be $5 million (average of $150,000 a year for 32 years when she'd be 65.) It might be $1 million.

It is more complex than that but if you want to injure someone that young make sure they are not a doctor, engineer, etc.

The other issue is if the judgment is dry to any extent meaning if you sue a deadbeat and lowlife and win will you get your money or will you have the judgment being paid off at $50 a week.

Joe Murphy is one of the top trial lawyers in personal injury in BC and he would not have taken that case if it was not a good chance of winning. It sounds like the facts of who did what to whom are not in dispute - more the question of the money and the degree of injury she has suffered and probably whether her issues are related to the fall at all. The defence (and I did not read of this case except Reg's post article) will often attempt to discredit the injured party and say she was not a good lawyer and will try and find things in a person's life like sexual abuse and other serious incidents that now are leading to this awful situation. They will try to bring evidence to suggest it didn't happen at the time of this injury but this happened to the person when they were 15 and daddy abused them or their family all died but her, etc. All to produce evidence that while there was injury at the dance it did not result in the person being unable to work ever.

A lawyer can work on a contingency fee on a case like that and take up to IIRC 33% although many contingency agreements are for numbers half of that from what I understand. It might be a 25% fee given the length of time and the complexity as the lawyer is SOL if the case fails at trial.

The balance of that will include a pain and suffering component I am sure which is capped but indexed for inflation by the Supreme Court of Canada in a series of decisions in the 1990s (?) that are known as the trilogy when it comes to awarding damages in personal injury cases. I have been out of that game since 2000 but pain and suffering is probably the $1 million dollar range now.

Here is where it gets interesting:

"Judge Stephen Kelleher also noted the lawsuit has taken years to resolve, but isn't over yet, because further hearings must decide who among the various defendants is liable for the multi-million-dollar award."

The law firm might be on the hook here too possibly if it was there hosted dinner and if the judge believes they were negligent in not noting the guy was drunk and failing to act to protect everyone's safety. I suspect the guy who fell on will like that as he'd not want to be on the hook personally although he likely would have some coverage himself (but his insurers wont willingly offer up funds).

In the meantime the plaintiff must wait and is not receiving any income or proceeds from the trial unless the law firm agreed to pay her all these years for some wages.
 

Regs

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Interesting.

Being liable for a guest at a party falling backwards onto someone, to me, is asinine.

Whatever happened to an accident being just that?

I blame ICBC for all this.

:)
 

Polska

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I take it this thread is open to all things that make you say WTF?

In that case

Justin Bieber(16) and Kim Kardashian(29) Dating? WTF?
 

bergamascho

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It would make a great item for day 12 of the mega sale...I'd buy one if only for the hilariousness that would transpire Christmas morning. Mind you, I don't fancy sleping on the couch for a week... =D
 

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