Private MRI Disbursement Disallowed Due To Lack of Evidence of Urgency

Adding to this site’s arcived decisions addressing the recovery of private MRI costs as a disbursement, reasons for judgement were released recently by the BC Supreme Court, Victoria Registry, disallowing such a claim.
In the recent case (Cooknell v. Quinn) the parties could not agree on the reasonableness of a variety of disbursement items including a privately funded MRI.  In rejecting this item Master Bouck held that the claim must fail as there was no evidence supporting the need for a privately funded MRI.  Master Bouck provided the following reasons:
[38]         Dealing firstly with the MRI disbursement, the facts of this case are somewhat analogous to those described by then Registrar Blok in Phelan v. Newcombe.
[39]         Although Dr. Smith did recommend an MRI in this case (it is not clear exactly when), there is no explanation offered for proceeding to a private clinic when a publicly funded scan was available — or at least no evidence to suggest that such a process was unavailable. As the MRI charge is disallowed on this basis, I do not need to consider whether such an investigation was necessary or proper.

bc injury law, Cooknell v. Quinn, disbursements, Master Bouck, MRI

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ERIK
MAGRAKEN

Personal Injury Lawyer

When not writing the BC Injury Law Blog, Erik is the managing partner at MacIsaac & Company, based in Victoria, B.C. He is also involved with combative sports regulatory issues and authors the Combat Sports Law Blog.

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