Personal Injury

Our Approach: Empowering Your Recovery

If you’re looking for a personal injury lawyer, your life has likely changed dramatically in the past few months.  You have lived through a traumatic accident and suffered physical and perhaps even psychological injuries.  You’re adjusting to your daily tasks with limited functionality- everything from getting dressed to cooking food pose new challenges.  You are likely on leave from work, and if you’re self-employed then you’re not working at all.  Hobbies and sports are a universe away.

Your family doctor has referred you to new caregivers; physiotherapists, kinesiologists, counsellors.   ICBC or another insurance company has assigned an adjuster to your case, and you have a file number and a package of documents you’re supposed to read, but you haven’t found the motivation.  You get the sense that, despite a cheerful and sympathetic tone, you are a file number in a long list of file numbers in your adjuster’s case load.

At the heart of all of this you resent that you’re a patient at all. You are not responsible for your injuries.  Someone else is.  Because of someone else’s carelessness, your life has changed, and instead of pursuing those things in life that gave you purpose, you’re staring at a calendar filled with months of rehab appointments and scanning the internet for lawyers.

Despite the setbacks you face, there is help.  We are a law firm dedicated to providing that help.

If your accident occurred in British Columbia, then you should feel comforted to know that our legal system affords you with rights to recover financially against the person that caused your injuries and loss.  In simple terms, our laws say that every aspect of your loss, from past and future care costs, income loss and your own personal loss of enjoyment of life (among a few) are recoverable.  While the law cannot give you back your physical or emotional health, it can approximate that loss financially.

We understand that telling your story accurately and completely is the only way to help you succeed in this process of financial recovery.  We take the time to understand you, interviewing not just you, but your friends and family and co-workers, and put together a compelling picture that truly reflects who you were prior to this accident, and how the event has altered your life.  Your story is unique, and it is important.  Because you are not simply a number among thousands of numbers being processed at an insurance company.

Your unique story sets you apart, and it is our job to understand that, and to help the system deliver justice to you.

Your Story Drives Our Work

We are committed to helping you recover from loss after personal injury.  We formed our practice based on the gap we found in the way many law firms practice in personal injury; firms that fail to involve themselves in their client’s care, and who fail to spend the time knowing and understanding their clients’ struggles and challenges often fail to obtain the best legal results.

Most firms fail to do this because it requires time- time to sit and listen to a client each month as they update a lawyer on their recovery and the myriad other things affecting their lives; and time to discuss care options with therapists and specialists.  Many firms cannot afford the time to do this.  But at Purcell Law, this is our priority.

We understand that failing to make the time to involve ourselves in your care impacts the outcome of your case.  It’s that simple.  Rather than seeing these client visits as time consuming and bothersome, we see them as an invaluable asset to developing your legal case.

Your recovery to health is a detailed journey that is best understood in real time.  That is why we make the time to understand the many small victories and setbacks you experience as they occur, and we make regular appointments with you to obtain updates and simply check-in with you.  We get to know the person behind the file, so to speak.  We get to know the challenges you face as you fight your way back to health, be they challenges in your home life, or financial stress from being off work.  By staying involved we can help you respond to some of these challenges because we have helped clients deal with these same issues before, and we know how to point you towards resources that can help.

We Go Further

ICBC has an obligation to fund certain parts of your rehabilitation, and they may have advised you of this.  But as well intended as ICBC’s mission statement is, many people find the process challenging.  We get it.  You are at your most vulnerable right now.  We help advocate for you with ICBC and ensure a proper care plan has been developed to ensure your recovery is on track.  If ICBC refuses to fund a certain piece of your care, we may fund it ourselves.

We do all this because it helps you, and your case.  As with other aspects of our approach to your case, being involved with your care givers gives us a better insight into your recovery and the challenges or successes that you may have encountered.

We want to know about your recovery and how we can help you get your life back.