Personal Injury Claims
Personal Injury Lawyers in Greater Vancouver
At Bronson Jones Gray & Company LLP, we have a team of personal injury lawyers in Greater Vancouver who can help you receive the compensation you deserve.
Personal injury claims must be made within two years of the injury. The amount of compensation to which you may be entitled will vary from case to case, depending on the degree of fault of the offending party, the significance of the injuries, and the degree to which the injuries impact the lifestyle that you previously enjoyed. We can help to ensure that your injuries and resulting impairments are properly explained to the judge or jury so you can be properly compensated.
Reasons to hire Bronson Jones Gray & Company LLP to assist with your personal injury claim include:
Personal Injury Damages
Courts determine what damages a claimant is entitled to on the basis of precedent. Therefore, it is possible to approximate a range of awards that a court may award by looking for reported judgments in similar cases. However, every case depends on its own unique facts, including the victim's credibility and the strength of the medical evidence. An experienced personal injury lawyer can explain what damages may be available to you and gather the necessary evidence to prove your claim.
There are a number of different kinds of damages for which you may receive compensation – they are sometimes called “heads of damage” and entitlement must be proven. For a full list of the heads of damage to which you may be entitled, you should consult an experienced personal injury lawyer.
Common heads of damage include:
Past wage loss
If you can’t work due to injuries caused by another driver, you are generally entitled to recover your total net wage loss. The calculation can be particularly complex for people who are self-employed, have salaries tied to performance bonuses or commissions, miss out on opportunities to accept more lucrative job opportunities, or are unable to capitalize on promising business ventures due to their injuries.
Non-pecuniary damages (pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life)
Entitlement varies according to a variety of different factors. The goal is to compensate you monetarily for the pain, suffering, inconvenience and disruption to your life caused by your injuries. In this case, careful record-keeping about your recovery process is very helpful.
Out-of-pocket expenses
Commonly, people injured in motor vehicle accidents have additional expenses for things like prescription medications, physiotherapy, chiropractic treatments, massage therapy or other types of rehabilitation programs, taxi fares to and from appointments, and so on. Generally, if you incur an expense that you would not have incurred had you not been injured, you can recover that expense as part of your claim as long as it is “reasonably necessary". It is critical that you retain original receipts and a descriptive record of your expenses.
Cost of future care
You are entitled to receive money that is sufficient to pay for “reasonable and medically justified” treatment that has been recommended in the future. This can be a complicated assessment and requires consultation with medical specialists and economists.
Loss of future earning capacity
If you have suffered a serious injury that impairs your ability to perform your work-related duties in the future or causes the loss of an opportunity to achieve more lucrative future earnings, then you are likely entitled to receive money to compensate for this loss. The assessment of lost future earnings requires an assessment of your projected lifetime earnings prior to the accident, compared to earnings that can still be reasonably expected despite your injury / impairments. Economists are usually retained to assist with the assessment of this loss.
Money management fees
If you have sustained serious and permanent injuries, you may be entitled to receive a significant amount of money to compensate for your future losses (loss of future income and future care needs). In order to ensure that this money does not run out during your lifetime, you might be entitled to the assistance of a financial manager.
The most common types of personal injury cases that we can assist with include:
Dog bites can leave lasting scars and disfiguring injuries, and they can be psychologically traumatic. If a dog or other animal has bitten you, you can file a lawsuit against the owner.
Contact us for a consultation today.
