My friend got sued for rear ending someone
 

A friend of mine asked me to get some advice for him for what he can do.

He rear ended someone in Oct 2009. He had only been in Canada for 3 years then and his English was not very good. The ICBC representative who called my friend had a deep accent that he could not understand. He heard something along the line of "are you willing to pay for all the vehicle damages and health claims for the other party", and he said "No".

The rear end was very minor and he thought he thought he was getting scammed for the other person claiming health or something. He just wanted to get ICBC to pay for the repair of the bumper, but maybe there was some miscommunication in that ICBC just paid the other guy nothing.

Then he forgot about the incident and in Feb 2012 he got a letter telling him he has a court date on April 2013 at the Supreme Court. He has now moved back to China and he contacted me yesterday asking what he should do. He hope to settle this out of court and just get this over with as cheap as possible.

Any advice or similar experiences?

:fuckthatshit:

"sue me now bitch"

Pretty much what ShanghaiKid said.

I'm not sure what the likelihood is of ICBC pulling your friend back from China just to be in court... My guess is zero haha :fuckthatshit:

good read.

Does your friend want to come back to Canada

your friend is probably like



:ilied:

My friend is giving up his permanent residence status because he's got a good job now in Shanghai making more than what he was making in Vancouver. But he said he would rather deal with it the right way.

What would be the implications if he just ignore it? Will he be arrested if he come to Canada again?

What would be the right way to deal with this?

So your friend hit someone with his car and fled to China. Someone is here with a damaged car and possible medical problems as a result of an accident he was involved in.

It sounds like he knew what he was doing and now hes gotten away with it, as cheaply as possible.


I'm sick of people treating Canada like a playground where there are no consequences.

Ewwww...dirty Chinks.
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If your friend had valid insurance while driving here in Canada then ICBC will appoint a lawyer on his behalf to represent him. He should not have to pay any injury claims/damages out of his pocket if his insurance policy covers him.

The other party is sueing him but ICBC will represent him in court and he may or may not have to give a statement to the lawyer, and/or cooperate with the lawyer. He might have to go to court but usually ICBC will settle out of court with the client/injured party/etc. and he will not have to go to court. There is the small possibility he may have to attend court and give a statement. He should receive a letter in the mail from ICBC in regards to this situation with a phone number on it for the lawyer.

We at Ruthless & Associates Inc. would recommend he call ICBC and let them know of the situation. I would speak to the adjuster who was handling his case and let them know what happened. Regardless, the adjuster/ICBC should/will receive the same court order. They should be in contact shortly, but it would be in his best interests to get a hold of them as soon as possible.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask our team at Ruthless & Associates Inc.

Yours Truly

necessary?

Indeed not. Which is why he was banned.

A several of my friends who got into car accidents 10 yrs ago and had no choice but fled back to Hong Kong and Vietnam. If your friend is in China, it's even more difficult for ICBC to bring his ass back unless he is willing to do so. I would suggest your friend to hire a legal rep in Canada to attend the court and keep his ass clean in China.

Hope he's gone for good :troll:


Anyways, back on topic:
@OP, how long ago did your friend moved back to China?
Has ICBC (or other parties) tried to contract your friend anytime from the first mail in February 2012, till now?

LOL dukes banned

Seems to me that what's happened is the guy he rear-ended is now suing for extended medical support or what have you. You have two years to file claim, and when you do you have to sue ICBC and the driver who hit you. Generally speaking, unless you hire a private lawyer (expensive) it ends up in the very odd situation of:
ICBC & the guy what got hit
vs
ICBC & the guy what did the hitting.

As long as his insurance was valid and would cover all the damage and medical whatnots, your friend is fine. This is basically him being summoned to attend court to testify on behalf of ICBC against ICBC.

april date in Supreme Court....??? :suspicious:

October 2009 incident, 2 years to sue, file in October 2011, +18 months to get a court date....

Sounds about right.

Thanks. The letter he got asked him to go to court to provide evidence. I will contact the the lawyer assigned to him on Monday to get more details.

He did have valid insurance at the time of accident, so does it mean even if he loose the court battle or ICBC settles with the plaintiff outside court, ICBC will pay for it because he was insured?

Since he will no longer live in Canada, ICBC insurance premium won't really matter to him anymore.

He did not "fled" to China because of the incident. He is willing to fly back to attend the court date to deal with this the right way. He just want to minimize the damage and do it the right way and that's why he asked me to help him.

I didn't know these claims go straight to the supreme court

I think you are confused between Supreme Court of BC and Supreme Court of Canada, the latter being the one that you would need to appeal multiple times to have your case heard.

Unless your friend does not plan to come back to Canada, he doesnt have to worry...
If he plans to get his citizenship, then tell him to pay it up and not get on the bad side of the government.

+1 all this.

Sounds like this other driver may be scamming, if they waited until the last second to file - probably hoping your friend would have forgotten any details that would help in his defense, and would be more willing to pay just to end it.

Could also be that ICBC isn't giving them as much as they want, so as Graeme S says, they're suing both your friend and ICBC.

Worst case scenario, the guy wins his case, and your buddy flips him the bird from the other side of the world.

He shouldn't be able to talk to you about it, unless you are named as your friend's representative.

That's not really how it works. A large percentage of claims aren't filed until close to or at the two year limitation period. The reason for that is because it costs money to file and run a claim. If it can be settled before then, perfect. You can save the expense of having to file.