Contingency Fees and Catastrophic Infant Claims Discussed
Section 40 of the BC Infants Act requires judicial approval of injury claim settlements involving infants with claims settled at over $50,000. The approval of legal fees is part of the judicial scrutiny process. Reasons for judgement were released this week by the BC Supreme Court, Victoria Registry, addressing such a settlement and further setting out a useful chart summarizing previous judicially approved fees.
In this week’s case (E.B. v. Basi) the infant plaintiff was catastrophically injured while in foster care during an alleged intentional “shaken baby” assault. This resulted in severe traumatic brain injuries requiring one-to-one care on a daily basis for the duration of the child’s life.
A settlement of $13,000,000 was judicially approved. The decision is worth reviewing in full for Mr. Justice Macaulay’s careful analysis of the factors that need to be considered when approving fees in such claims given the non-binding nature of infant contingency fee agreements. At the conclusion of the reasons for judgement the Court set out the below useful chart of previously approved infant settlements.
|
|
Nature of |
Settlement Amount |
Settlement Timing |
Legal Fee Sought |
Hours Estimated |
|
|
Harrington v Royal Columbia |
Medical malpractice |
$1.5 million and costs |
3 days < trial |
$500,000 |
Estimate of 800 hours not accepted by |
$175,000 |
|
Richardson v Low |
Medical malpractice (birth case) |
$2.27 million |
Settled well before trial |
$897,750 |
Court says no basis to estimate time but must be less than 260 hours |
$325,000 |
|
Cook v |
Medical malpractice |
$2.6 million |
Settled on 1st day of trial |
$850,000 |
Non recorded |
$650,000 |
|
Adams v Emmott |
Medical malpractice (birth case) |
$3 million |
Settled Thursday before |
$725,000 |
300 hours estimate by Court |
$600,000 |
|
Chong v |
Medical malpractice (birth case) |
$2.5 million |
After 1 week of trial |
$750,000 |
2131.2 hours |
$750,000 |
|
Renaerts v Korn |
Medical malpractice (birth and abandonment; intentional infliction of harm) |
$8 million |
Settled weekend before trial (numerous pretrial motions and limitation defence) |
$2.2 million |
Hours for 3 counsel |
$1.8 million |
|
Duchene v Woolley |
Medical malpractice (birth case) |
$3.6 million |
Settled 2 days before trial although defendants did not serve liability reports |
$1.244 million |
167 hours estimated but Court notes more was probably spent |
$900,000 |
|
|
Bizove v |
Medical malpractice (birth case) |
$3.566 million |
3 days before trial |
$750,000 |
740 hours (3 senior counsel) |
$750,000 |
||
|
|
Makowsky v |
Medical malpractice (birth case) |
$3.2 million |
4 months before trial but liability ceased to be issue several months before trial |
$900,000 |
136 hours recorded but Court suggests they must have exceeded 200 hours |
$600,000 |
||
|
|
Strachan v
|
Medical malpractice (birth case) |
$4 million |
2nd day of 2 week trial |
$862,500 |
Recorded time for 3 senior counsel 484 hours |
$800,000 |
||
|
|
Delaronde v.
|
MCFD shaken baby case |
$5.448 million |
Settled after 4 weeks of evidence and 3 days of submissions |
$1.347 million |
None mentioned |
$1.347 million |
||
|
|
B.M.
|
MCFD shaken baby case |
$5.35 million |
Liability trial (8 days) and appeal then settled several months before trial |
$1.7 million |
Hours valued at $607,320 |
$1.475 million |
||