ICBC Discovery Exam - Hit by Drunk ICBC Worker
 

Hi,

I have a discovery exam with ICBC this week in Downtown, and I was wondering how is it like and were there any questions, tricks that the ICBC lawyer may try to pull off that I have to watch out for? I also have a lawyer with me, so that should help. I like to go in very prepared. The accident occurred 4 years ago when rear ended by a drunk ICBC driver. Yeah that's right, a drunk ICBC driver. It was a serious accident too where the car was destroyed & had to get a new one. Had to go thru physio, gym, etc.

Well anyways, any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

I would think that your lawyer would be the best person to talk to. He/she has probably been through a lot of these before, so therefore could tell you what to expect.

he rear ended you.. he's at fault 100% no matter what i think..

sorry but what is a discovery exam ?

"ICBC driver"

what?...

He's not asking about the liability as it's pretty clear cut (as you stated).

He's going into something called 'Discovery for examination' or something like that. I've never had to go through one myself, so I cannot offer any other advice other than what I've posted above.

This is what a ICBC discovery exam is:

http://icbclaw.com/blog/examinations...our-icbc-claim

I'm just looking for any tips or advice to get through the process. It's like 3 hours of questioning by the ICBC lawyer about your accident when the claim hasn't settled yet after a few years. Any personal experiences would be great.

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LMAO @ ICBC driver.

A person who drives icbc?

an ICBC employee maybe?

thats my guess

My wife is going in for one of these shortly as well. She was in a car with her mother when they were hit basically head on by another vehicle. The woman who owned the vehicle that hit them had decided it would be a good idea to allow her 15 year old son drive the car through POCO. Awesome huh?

Anyway, the amount the lawyer is asking for really isn’t even that much. My wife’s knee is messed up pretty much for life. Her mother just got a settlement check, but they are taking my wife’s claim to court, so she will have to do this too.

If anyone has any experience with a discovery examination”, please post up!

Yes, it was an ICBC employee that was drunk. He had a few drinks that night.

I am a lawyer and have conducted a quite a few Examination for Discovery. Some of the exams have lasted a few days and others just a few minutes. I have one tmw morning which is a continuation from this past Monday. I can give you a few tips here, but I'm sure you're lawyer will guide you.

- The main objective of a Examination for Discovery is for the the other side's lawyer to get as much information they can out of you under oath.
-The questions are based on documents/information the other side has.
-If the other lawyer starts fishing for answers on irrelevent matters you're lawyer should step in and object.
- You will find, and will probably get really annoyed that the same question will be asked to you multiple times, but in different wording. At times you will probably want to jump across the table and slap the lawyer and say, "How many f'in times are you going to ask me the same bloddy question?" - The name of the game here is consistency, they want to make sure you're consistent with your answer.
- Everything that gets said at a examination for discovery is transcribed by the court reporter word for word. Both sides will later get a transcript.
- If/When you go to trial the opposing side will have your transcribed answers, and may ask you the same questions again. If at that time your answers differ than how you answered previously, well needless to say any competent lawyer will pounce on you, and challenge your credibility.
- The last thing I can advise you is that, you MUST answer the absolute minimum that is required you. Say for example, if I hold a pen in my hand and ask you, "Do you know what this is?" Your answer should ONLY and ONLY be "Yes" nothing more nothing less (keep in mind I'm assuming here you know what a pen is, lol). This is the number 1 tip I offer my clients before they are going in for a discovery.

Just be calm, and collective and answer the question to the best of your recollection. Take your time and think about what you are going to say. If you do not know the answer, don't try to make one up, simply reply "I don't know" or "I don't recall"

The main reason why examinations will take FOREVER, like my continuation one tmw, is because the person answering will try to be a wise ass and answer everything under the sun expect for the question actully asked. This really isn't a bad thing for the lawyer conducting the exam. The more time times you have to ask the same question to get a answer the more it seems you have something to hid and therefore don't want to offer a straight answer.
Best of Luck

Solid advice from above.

THINK before you answer. Don't give them ammo by unconsciously inferring that your life is now "fine" and back to "normal".

Like said earlier, your lawyer will definitely have more detailed pointers.

Best of luck!

my dad went thought this. basically answer "I don't know I'm not a doctor" for everything to cover your ass incase you have an injury pop up at a later date.

Thanks for all the advice. It was very useful.

So I'll briefly describe how it went. The ICBC lawyer that I had to deal with, I have to admit, was very annoying. Cuz the accident happened around 4 years ago, the lawyer would ask random months of each year, & ask for what % I have recovered & the frequency of the pain of each body part that was injured. And then, the lawyer would go back & ask again for the % recovery & pain frequency to see if it matches exactly what I've said before going around in circles.

For example, making this up, I would answer on March 07, my lower back recovered ~30% - pain 5-6x's/month, shoulder ~40% - pain constant few days/wk, neck ~80% - pain - ~3hr/day kinda thing . Then the lawyer will ask again for the same data for the other months of those years. I think I was asked for data for ~10+ months and then repeated again. It was getting pretty ridiculous, and was like a memory test. Good thing I'm good with numbers.

End result, the ICBC lawyer was pissed that I didn't forget my numbers, I can tell by the frustration from their face. A Kodak moment. My lawyer was also pissed and actually yelled the ICBC lawyer to stop playing games, since my lawyer never seen anything like this before. :D

Then the lawyer would spend 25% of the time asking details of the job which I found pretty irrelevant to the case.

Anyways, hopefully anyone would find this useful. I never expected the ICBC lawyer would pull something like this. I got smashed by an ICBC drunk driver, & an ICBC lawyer wants to screw around, I don't think so. Again thanks for the advice.

I don't think that the fact that it was an ICBC employee that hit you or the fact that an ICBC lawyer was questioning you makes a difference!! All lawyers are like that!!! They try all the tricks to try and trip you up!!!

Generally the objective of a discovery is to trip up who ever is at the receiving end. The truth value of the answers is based consistency. The credible people maintain it, and the non credible people trip up.
Our client expects the best out of us, and we try to defend/put forward our client's position. If ICBC were my client and their instructions to me was that you are not as injured as you claim you are I would design my questions based on those instructions. It's nothing personal against the person we're questioning. The lawyers understand this and will usually get along quite well before and after the discovery, or at other times in Court. Often times clients complain that we are too friendly with the other side's lawyer.
At the discovery I had last Friday, opposing counsel and I were getting along great during the breaks. We were discussing discussing vacation plans, office locations hybrid car technologies etc...
Now that you've been through one of these you have some experience now, and will know what to expect, if there is ever another one.

so... get two fingers in there... as in kids in a sand box style? :confused: