$80,000 Non-Pecuniary Assessment For Chronic Hip Soft Tissue Injury

Reasons for judgement were released last week by the BC Supreme Court, Vancouver Registry, assessing damages for a chronic hip soft tissue injury.
In last week’s case (Pisani v. Pearce) the Plaintiff was involved in a ‘significant‘ head on collision.  Fault was admitted by the Defendant.   The crash resulted in a non-specific soft tissue injury to the Plaintiff’s hip.  The symptoms interfered with the Plaintiff’s physical lifestyle and were expected to linger indefinitely.  In assessing non-pecuniary damages at $80,000 Madam Justice Loo provided the following reasons:

[73] Ms. Pisani was injured in a significant head on collision. Her 2009 Mercedes C300 4Matic was written off. She sustained soft tissue injuries to her shoulder, neck, and back. She will likely suffer flare ups from time to time for the rest of her life. She now has problems with her hip that prevent her from enjoying activities she used to enjoy. There is no diagnosis for the problem with her hip, and there is little or no evidence that it will improve. Her relationship with her boyfriend and her friends has been adversely affected.

[74] Her social life and her extracurricular activities have been adversely affected. She has difficulty attending the mosque because sitting on the floor causes her pain. She cannot dance, play soccer, hike, ride her bicycle, or ski. Dancing has always played a big and important part of her life. Hopefully by carrying out Dr. Anton’s recommendations, she will improve her postural muscles and core stabilizers and may be able to resume most of her activities…

[87] In this case, Dr. Anton suggests that Ms. Pisani’s neck, shoulder, and lower back symptoms should hopefully improve with one on one training with a qualified kinesiologist. Dr. Anton also suggests that if Ms. Pisani fails to have a good response to the training, she may not be able to resume dancing. She will probably suffer flare ups of her injuries for the rest of her life. She is still only 23 years old. There is also no evidence that her hip problem will resolve.

[88] I conclude that a fair and reasonable award of non-pecuniary damages is $80,000.

In addition to the above, paragraphs 96-104 are worth reviewing for the Court’s discussion of damages for the Plaintiff’s delayed entry into the workforce as a result of her injuries.