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More broadly, Numerator reports that plaintiff injury lawyer advertising is up 21 per cent in the last year in B.C. Google confirms that personal-injury plaintiff lawyers in B.C. spend the most in Canada for Google search advertising to capture audiences, spending three times as much as Alberta lawyers and more than double Ontario lawyers.

The explanation for the spike in B.C. advertising spending is simple: the current insurance system in our province has been uniquely generous to lawyers. Not so much to those paying for insurance and those injured in collisions, whose benefits haven’t increased since the 1990s. Our system is the last in Canada to face significant reforms curtailing legal costs despite the fact that ICBC now reports that almost half of the average collision settlement in B.C. isn’t going to the injured person, but toward legal costs and lawyers’ fees.

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ICBC tracks these numbers because ICBC cuts the cheques at the end of the day. Cheques drawing on money paid into ICBC by drivers through their insurance premiums.

I can understand why some B.C. personal-injury lawyers are defensive when I point this out. They don’t get the respect they deserve for their work. While it is true that legal costs are out of control, it is also true that many lawyers in B.C. provide real and meaningful help to people who are injured and who can’t help themselves.

I know this from personal experience. My father was a personal-injury lawyer. He put food on our family’s table by helping people who were injured in car crashes, or otherwise through the negligence of someone else. I’ve personally brought personal-injury actions as a lawyer on behalf of low-income clients attempting to seek justice.