One of ICBC’s principal arguments in many ICBC claims is that you failed to mitigate your damages by returning to work earlier or by carrying out a certain treatment recommendation which probably would have made your condition better earlier.
Under law, you have a duty to mitigate your damages, which means that you have to take all reasonable steps to reduce the losses that you may suffer as a result of your injuries. ICBC has the burden of proof to establish that you failed to mitigate your damages so they have to actually prove the issue in Court.
In terms of your wage loss claim, the best thing to do is have your doctor closely monitor your progress and to support the fact that you are unable to return to work. In the face of sound medical opinions on your inability to return to work, ICBC will be hard-pressed to argue failure to mitigate.
If your doctor recommends you try some work then you should go forward with returning to your original job or trying to get another form of employment. If you attempt a return to work program and it turns out you are unable to continue at work, make sure that your doctor supports you going off work again. The fact you attempted to return to work and it failed will only benefit your claim because ICBC will have a hard time arguing failure to mitigate. Of course, if you are able to soldier on and work then that is helpful to you financially because you are back at work. Therefore, it is a win-win situation.
In terms of following medical treatment advice, the simple answer is that you should follow all recommendations by your doctors and therapists regardless of whether you believe they are going to be of any value.
If a doctor recommends a certain therapy program you should go to that program. If you are unable to afford the program, you should send a self-serving letter to ICBC through your lawyer or by yourself asking ICBC to fund the program. If ICBC denies funding, it cannot turn around later and argue you should have gone to the program. The reason being, you can simply argue you were unable to go to the program because of lack of money.
