The appointment of counsel by ICBC differs somewhat between Claim Centres and Head Office.
In Claim Centres, usually after service of the Writ and Statement of Claim, the ICBC adjuster completes a document known as a Suit Report, where the major issues of the case are set out. The Suit Report is forwarded to ICBC’s Litigation Services Division who reviews the Suit Report and assigns counsel to the defense of the file.
At Head Office, the handling adjuster completes a Counsel Assignment Form, and this is once again forwarded to Litigation Services Division. The major difference, when compared to the Claims Centres, is that in addition to any major issues on the file (injuries, liability, etc…), the adjuster often provides a short-list of firms or specific lawyers he/she would like to see assigned. Hence, a Head Office adjuster can have input into the counsel selection process.
Claims Centres are usually only able to recommend select lawyers or law firms where the file is of special interest or the plaintiff counsel is “targeted” by ICBC.
ICBC has a list of law firms and specific lawyers approved to do ICBC’s defense work. The lawyers can range from the reasonable to the very aggressive and not so reasonable. The defense lawyer, at the end of the case, is given an assessment from the handling ICBC adjuster. These rating impacts on the amount of work the law firm he/she works for may get in the future. Therefore, the defense lawyer is usually trying his/her best to impress ICBC including, in some instances, in making a plaintiff’s claim very difficult and to personally attack the plaintiff.
The defense lawyer, in many cases, determines whether or not your claim will go smoothly or become a long drawn out and hard fought battle. Unfortunately, you really have no control over who becomes the defense lawyer so it really is the “luck of the draw”.
ICBC has law firms across the Province bid on contracts with ICBC every few years. At that time, ICBC considers a number of factors, including performance of the individual lawyers at the firm, in allocating work to law firms.
If you are looking for a lawyer to represent you, a consideration is whether or not he/she works for ICBC. If the lawyer does ICBC defense work, there is an advantage to you in hiring this person since the lawyer should know how ICBC works. However, this lawyer may not take a strong position for you in fear that he/she may upset ICBC resulting in a decline in the amount of defense work assigned to his/her firm.
Ideally you want someone who has spent a few years doing ICBC defence work, but now is with an ICBC plaintiff only law firm.
