"What I want to say is this: - If you logically try to persuade a person that there is no absolute reason for shedding tears, the person in question will cease weeping. That's self evident. Why, I should like to know, should such a person continue doing so?"

"If such were the usual course of things, life would be a very easy matter," replied Raskolnikoff.

- Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Lawyering up

I took my car in to ICBC last night and there is about $500 damage to the bumper (you can see the imprint of the outline of the license plate of the guy that hit me). I also went to my family doctor who recommended a course of massage therapy, and possibly physiotherapy for my left shoulder, which is a bit messed up from being thrown against the seatbelt.
I explained this to ICBC today, and here is what they have come back with:
- I am entitled to 12 trips to see a registered massage therapist
- those 12 visits must be used up by April 21st (apparently if I have whiplash, it will be miraculously cleared by that exact date)
- they will pay $23 towards each of my visits (leaving me on the hook for $57, multiply that by 12 and my rehabilitation will cost me up to $684)
- the committee that reviews the claims meets once a week on Tuesdays, and they will advise me within two weeks as to whether they will cover the full cost of my trips to a RMT
I will repeat here that I am totally not at fault: I was a complete stop and was rear-ended by a guy that got out of his car, was belligerent, told me there was no damage, offered me money and then drove away. Apparently his car has been in for repairs too, so I guess there was some fucking damage, huh.
Anyways. This is what you get for having a perfect driving record and trying to simply get the full cost of your medical treatments reimbursed by ICBC. When I was in school we were taught that the purpose of insurance and compensation was to try and return you to as similar a place as you were before the accident happened. Before I was hit my car was blemish free and I didn't have back pain. So far they've offered to to fix my car and to pay one third of my medical bills and assume I will have no long term effects past April 21st.
Yes. I understand it could have been significantly worse: I could be in a wheelchair or dead. In the great scheme of things this is nothing. It's the principal of the thing: it is not reasonable that I should be out of pocket for anything. But unless you're missing work, or you can show them where your bone is poking through the skin, they're really not interested.
It may be time to lawyer up.

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