In Their Name: “For families thrust into dealing with a wrongful death in British Columbia, matters become even more painful and frustrating if they seek advice on legal avenues to find justice.”
The Verdict: “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 family of a 28-year-old Mexican woman killed while tandem hang-gliding is suing the instructor who was given five months in jail for causing her death, as well as the sport’s governing associations.
Lawyers are calling on B.C. to reform its wrongful death laws in the wake of a new $50,000 fund established for each child of missing and murdered women, including Robert Pickton’s victims.
While several family members decried the Tuesday announcement as “pennies,” undervaluing their lost loved ones, the figure is the maximum available under the current Family Compensation Act.
As the result of an archaic law imported from Britain, [Catherine] Adamson and other B.C. families are left with little legal recourse in the face of a loved one’s wrongful death.