ICBC’s false charge against Danica were stayed by Crown Counsel upon being shown how inaccurate the Report to Crown Counsel was. Danica tried to settle her civil claim by forcing ICBC to honour its own offer to settle at $10,000. ICBC succeeded in having a judge invalidate their offer. ICBC continued to accuse Danica of making a false statement and attempting to defraud ICBC.   ICBC continued to insist it had done nothing wrong.

Danica’s only way to retrieve her good name was to go to trial. That trial lasted eight days, ending 17 November 2015.  TLAG lawyers Thomas Harding and Bree Makohn represented Danica.

In her 80-page judgment Madam Justice Susan Griffin very much disagrees with ICBC’s position that they did nothing wrong.

• She found the conduct of ICBC and its employees to be odious, malicious, and vindictive.

• Madam Justice Griffin found that Constable John Gould “cherry-picked from the evidence” in order to support false charges

• Gould deliberately distorted the evidence

• Gould attempted to have Canada Immigration review the Arsenovskis’ refugee status based on these same false accusations.

• Gould deliberately misstated the facts in his Report to Crown Counsel.

• Gould’s conduct was a perversion of his office and his police powers.

• Gould’s conduct as found to be “indicative of an attitude or workplace culture” shared with the adjustor Gregory Bodin.

• This was part of a tactic by ICBC to discourage civil claims for personal injury by using its police powers to intimidate potential claimants.

The most telling statement from Justice Griffin is this:

There has been no hint in the evidence that ICBC apologized for its conduct. There has been no hint that ICBC has taken steps to separate the close working relationship between SIU and civil adjusters or that it has imposed any measures to ensure that more objectivity and neutrality will be brought to bear on the use of police powers by ICBC employees than what was shown in this case.

Madam Justice Griffin orders ICBC to pay Mrs. Arsenovski

1. $30,000.00 for her emotional distress,

2. $7,200 for her legal expenses in defending the bogus criminal charges, and

3. $350,000.00 in punitive damages.

John Gould has since retired.

Gregory Bodin, however, has been promoted to SIU Officer, and is now a Constable with ICBC.   I wonder how his conduct has been affected by Justice Griffin’s scathing judgment? I wonder what ICBC has done to correct the workplace attitude which allowed this to happen?

We already know how Justice Griffin’s scathing judgment is being received in the halls of ICBC.

• They announced within hours that they are appealing the decision. They filed the appeal on 11 March.

• They will try to convince the Court of Appeal that:

  • Madam Justice Griffin was wrong.

  • Mrs. Arsenovski was wrong.

  • Everyone was wrong… Except for ICBC and its hirelings.

$10,000 and an apology by ICBC would have ended this matter.

When questioned about this case in the Legislature, Minister of Transportation Mike Stone answered (in part): “ICBC is expected to ensure, with each and every claim that they handle, that those claims are handled with a spirit of fairness and equity.”

Wow. That’s a pretty high expectation. What, exactly, is Minister Stone’s basis for it? It doesn’t seem like the expectation is based on experience.

Remember this case when you read ICBC propaganda claiming that many injury claims have “an element of fraud”. Perhaps the fraud is by ICBC.

To read the trial judgment, click here.

To read the judgment on the attempt to settle, click here.

The case has received significant public interest: here,  here, here, here, and here