叠.颁.鈥檚 will freeze compensation for a person鈥檚 salary to whatever they were earning at the time of their crash, eliminating the ability in most cases to get extra money for lost future wages.
The change, say personal-injury lawyers, will disproportionally affect younger people just starting their careers and earning relatively low salaries. They鈥檒l no longer be able to argue in court that injuries they sustained in a car crash prevent them from getting a future promotion, advancing their careers and ultimately making more money.
鈥淵ou are throwing a lot of people into a lifetime of destitution if they don鈥檛 get fair compensation for their injuries that have basically stymied their ability to work,鈥� said Wes Mussio, managing partner at Mussio Goodman, one of the largest personal-injury firms in the province.
But sa国际传媒 Attorney General David Eby said it鈥檚 a necessary trade-off to address rising costs at the Insurance Corp. of sa国际传媒
鈥淭hings like speculative future wages you hadn鈥檛 actually earned but thought you had a chance to earn, I think that鈥檚 become disconnected from what British Columbians thought insurance was for, and what they were willing to pay for,鈥� said Eby.
ICBC paid $435 million in future wage losses in 2019, an increase of 88 per cent since 2015. The average payment was $104,562 last year, a rise of 30 per cent since 2016, according to the corporation.
Mussio said ICBC鈥檚 cost pressures are caused by its aggressive litigation approach and changes to settlement policies. Eby said the problem appears more prevalent in sa国际传媒 than other provinces, and reflects the unacceptably high legal costs facing ICBC.
Currently, sa国际传媒 courts routinely award 鈥渓oss of earning capacity鈥� to people injured in vehicle accidents that reflects someone being less capable of earning income in the future, less marketable to future employers, less valuable in the competitive labour market and less able to take advantage of future job opportunities that might otherwise have been available without the injuries.
Under 叠.颁.鈥檚 new no-fault auto insurance system, to begin in May 2021, ICBC will pay someone about 90 per cent of what they were earning, up to $1,200 a week, if their injuries prevent them from working. But the amount will be linked to the job and wages at the time of the crash, with no future earning losses.
Mussio, who owns the Nanaimo Clippers junior hockey team, said if any of his players were injured in a bus crash, such as the Saskatchewan Humboldt Broncos team in 2018, they would receive minuscule wage coverage because they are young athletes in school and not yet earning their full potential.
Mussio also pointed to the example of a teenager in a summer job in the natural resource sector who loses a limb in an accident, and whose entire career is compromised without the ability to claim future wage losses. 鈥淗e鈥檚 in that accident and because he didn鈥檛 have a stitch of income before his wage indemnity, his benefits are virtually nothing,鈥� said Mussio.
Eby countered that the no-fault system will recognize students or people in job-training courses and set their wage compensation to account for what they would have earned had they completed their education. That includes medical and law students, students in a structured internship, and a career path mapped out with promotions as part of employment, he said. The no-fault system will also pay for missed tuition.
In the case of a catastrophic injury such as the loss of a limb, the new system will also pay up to $250,000 in permanent impairment benefits, which functions as a kind of replacement for pain and suffering awards currently won in court.
Eby acknowledged there will be legitimate cases 鈥渋n a sort of grey category鈥� where some people will be affected negatively by the change. But he said he鈥檚 counting on ICBC鈥檚 boosted fairness commissioner and the Ombudsperson to flag those cases and any unfair treatment going forward.
鈥淭he plan is not to leave anybody behind,鈥� he said.
Eby also said it鈥檚 possible government could make changes to the no-fault system on the issue of future wage losses if he receives enough public feedback on the issue during public consultations.
