The "New" New BC Supreme Court Civil Rules
Regular visitors to this site undoubtedly know that the New BC Supreme Court Civil Rules come into force on July 1, 2010. These will effect every ICBC and other Personal Injury Claim prosecuted in the BC Supreme Court.
The rules are being tinkered with before they come into force and earlier this month the Lieutenant Governor in Council approved Order No. 243 which makes some changes to the New Rules of Court. On quick review these appear to be very minor. Kristina Oldenburg of the Courthouse libraries of BC was kind enough to provide me with a link to a PDF document containing the actual amendments.
It is rumoured that there may be a further transitional provision addressing expert witness reports commissioned under the current rules for cases that will go to trial under the new rules. This would be a welcome development because many expert reports that comply with the current rules will not comly with the new rule addressing expert opinion evidence. It is not an understatement to say that it will cost tens of millions of dollars to update all of these reports. This seems like an unnecessary and fixable expense.
I will continue to address this topic as further changes are made to the New Rules.