Derryck Harold Smith, Psychiatrist

Psychiatrist Derryck Smith shows up in a lot of ICBC cases.  They must like him, because they hire him a lot.

Here are some of the comments judges have made about Dr. Smith (for the complete cases, click the links):

Maras v. Seemore, 2014 BCSC 1109 (Mr. Justice Abrioux):

[84]        In my view, Dr. Smith has assumed the role of an advocate and has purported to make findings of fact. …

[85]        I conclude that Dr. Smith’s report is inadmissible.

Wallman v. Doe, 2014 BCSC 79 (Mr.  Justice Gary C. Weatherill):

[362]     In Dr. Smith’s opinion, any diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome is invalid because the syndrome “does not exist”.

[363]     Dr. Smith was cross-examined at length.  He was argumentative throughout.

[449]     Dr. Smith’s view was that the Accident was a minor impact, there was no objective evidence of a concussion and it was therefore “preposterous” to suggest that the plaintiff sustained a concussive injury.  ….  He ignored and made no attempt to reconcile the contrary opinions of other respected physicians and the diagnostic criteria for concussions set out in authoritative text books he had previously endorsed because they “set the bar way too low”.  He relied only upon information that was supportive of his opinions and disregarded the information that was not.  … This kind of “cherry-picking” by experts is unhelpful.  Dr. Smith was not an objective expert witness.  I do not accept his opinion that the plaintiff did not suffer a concussion in the Accident.

Zhang v. Law, 2009 BCSC 991 (Mr. Justice Sewell):

[65]           Dr. Smith agreed in cross examination that, based on this note, he had concluded prior to his examination of Ms. Zhang that she had no psychiatric issues prior to her pregnancy.

[66]           In my view Dr. Smith was too dismissive of the significant indications that Ms. Zhang was experiencing psychiatric difficulties prior to her pregnancy and loss of her unborn child.  …  I also find it quite singular that Dr. Smith agreed that chronic pain can be a significant risk factor for depression but failed to address this factor in any detail in his report.

In the period 2004-2013, ICBC has paid Dr. Smith at least $3,921,014.  The 2009-2013 ICBC Financial Schedules are here.    The rest are no longer on-line, but I’m happy to email copies.  I keep hard copies to defeat ICBC’s routine deletion of records from their website.

I say “at least” because some payments may be direct from ICBC lawyers, or go through an “expert” company.  Those don’t show up in ICBC’s financial schedules as payments to any particular doctor.  A quick search of CANLII shows that he also does a lot of work defending against WCB claims.

With comments from judges like these, ask yourself why ICBC hires him so often.  They must like something about him.  They certainly pay him a lot of money.