ICBC Law

Further to my previous posts on this topic (click here and here to read these) ICBC has now published their ‘statements and schedules of financial information’ for 2008 which reveals, amongst other things, the amount of money ICBC has paid to ‘suppliers for goods and services for the year ended December 31, 2008.’

Suppliers of Goods and Services include doctors who perform ‘independent’ medical exams for ICBC.   When ICBC sends and injured person to an independent medical exam these financial statements can be checked to see just how much money any given physician was paid by ICBC in a calendar year.

ICBC routinely uses a handful of doctors to perform these independent exams.  It looks like Dr. Schweigel was ICBC’s most used physician in 2008 generating over $975,000 in ICBC billings.

Another provider of ’services’ revealed in these financial statements are law firms who do ICBC defence work. I have previously posted that some lawfirms and lawyers work both sides of the fence, that is on some cases they work for ICBC and in other cases they work for injured plaintiff’s suing someone insured by ICBC. According to the BC Law Society there is nothing wrong with this but these lawyers need to let their clients know if they signed the ICBC defence contract (known as the SAA) which restricts the lawyers ability to make claims against ICBC.  This is required so clients can make an informed decision when choosing to hire their lawyer.

If you hired a lawyer to advance your ICBC injury claim and are curious if your lawyer also works for ICBC you can check these annual reports to see just how much money any given lawfirm is paid by ICBC in each calendar year.