ICBC defense tactics in a personal injury claim require that you make regular visits to and from your family doctor regardless of whether there is really much benefit from an injury recovery perspective. It is very important that you see your family doctor right away after an accident to record your injuries.
The reason being, the family doctor is required to make notes in your clinical chart of each visit and the complaints at each visit. Then, at some point, the family doctor will be required to provide a medical legal report setting out the various visits you had with the doctor as well as the complaints you made. Next, the doctor will provide an opinion, which includes a diagnosis of your injuries together with the determination of any long-term effect the injuries may have on you.
In most personal injury claims, the clinical records of your family doctor are provided to ICBC. The adjuster and/or defense lawyer carefully goes over the records for inconsistencies, lack of reporting of injuries, intervening events, pre-accident health issues, etc. Hence, your family doctor really becomes a “sounding board” for all your complaints before and after the accident. This fact necessarily requires you to provide a complete description of your complaints to your family doctor whenever you go to see your doctor.
ICBC takes great advantage of the fact that you may not have seen your family doctor for several months by saying that you basically must have been recovered by then or alternatively, your injuries are so minor that it was not necessary for you to go see a doctor. Therefore, if you still have problems from your car accident, it’s necessary to continue to see your family doctor simply to update the doctor on your condition. I am sure the Medical Service Plan is not happy with this suggestion but the reality of the situation is that ICBC has forced claimants to document their injuries in this matter through the family doctor.
