If you were to die because a texting driver ran you down or a surgeon left a scalpel behind after an operation, what compensation would the courts award your loved ones?
If you’re over 65, it’s very little. If you live in B.C., it’s probably nothing at all. Before any payment for a wrongful death, the surviving spouse, adult children or estate has to prove the death was due to negligence and that damages resulted. Proving negligence is extremely costly — and showing damages can be impossible.
Logan Power was a young man with his life ahead of him. A Grade-12 honours student at Dawson Creek secondary school, Power was finishing his school career and getting ready for the rest of his life.
Then, last Sept. 9, 2016 Power was killed by an alleged drunk driver.
On the second anniversary of her son being shot and killed by a Victoria police officer, Marney Mutch hand-delivered a notice of a wrongful death lawsuit to the police department and the city.
Representatives from several families first got together a little more than a decade ago to formalize a collective effort aimed at meaningful legislative change when it comes to wrongful death.
As each family would soon learn, families seeking justice in honour of their deceased loved ones were in essence prohibited from pursuing justice, unless their dead family members were breadwinners.
The first time Angela Ramos travelled Burma Road, she was shocked to see all the crosses.
Ramos had never heard of the gravel road, or the mudflats to which it leads, until the rainy night in March when her daughter was a passenger in a Nissan Sentra that veered off the roadway and fell five metres down an embankment.
2024 Election – David Eby & the BC NDP have failed to keep their promise to modernize BC’s wrongful death laws within their 2020-2024 mandate of government.
John Rustad and the Conservative Party of BC have committed to modernize if elected.
