In light of the developing evolving COVID–19 situation, your dedicated team at WTinjury want to provide a brief update with respect to how these recent developments have so far impacted the civil Courts to date and inform you as to how these developments may continue to develop and have an impact on the timely resolution of our client’s claims develop in the days and weeks to come. We also want to inform you as to what your WTinjury team intends to do to in response to these changes in order to keep our client’s matters “on track”.
We want to first reassure you that the health and wellness of our clients and WTinjury team is our top priority. At present, nearly all of our WTinjury team is now working remotely. For the time being, all in-person meetings will be rescheduled or conducted by phone, video conference, or email. Despite these recent modifications in the manner in which we serve our clients, WTinjury will continue to provide the same quality responsive client service that our clients both deserve and have come to expect. However, we will now be providing these services while respecting our duty as responsible citizens to follow and respect the various directives from health officials at all levels of government to take appropriate and necessary measures to seek mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus in our community.
In light of the recent and unprecedented impact that the COVID-19 virus has had on all aspects of our everyday lives, we must all expect and prepare for delays and frustration with the progress of our client’s legal claims. As many of you have heard, last week, The Honourable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia has taken the unprecedented step to close all B.C. Courthouses for the foreseeable future (officially May 1, 2020). However, we currently anticipate that cases with trial dates up to the end of June 2020 will be adjourned and hopefully reset at some point with the next 18 months.
Unfortunately, these mandatory courtroom closures will further burden a court system that was already significantly strained by ICBC’s adversarial and aggressive litigation strategy that we have all experienced in the last 6-9 months. We also expect that for at least the next two months many court processes such as Examinations for Discovery will proceed by videoconference wherever possible. In rare cases some court processes may need to be cancelled.
However, despite the recent announcement regard Court closures, our WTinjury team members will continue to work on our client’s files with a view to reaching a fair and reasonable settlement of our client’s files. Please know that despite recent developments, the entire WTinjury team will continue be available to answer any questions or concerns you may have in relation to your claim. The most effective and reliable form of communication for the immediate future is email, but we are available for telephone and even Skype or Zoom video conference meetings as well, if required or preferred.
In the meantime, you can continue to rely on WTinjury and our committed and talented team members and our exceptional track record for innovative and pragmatic high quality legal services and solutions, anchored in decades of proven results for our bodily injury clients.
Stay safe and reach out if you have any questions in the interim.
All the best,
David Wallin and the entire WTinjury Team