Our client was injured in a helicopter crash at work. The employer then terminated her employment while she was on medical leave and WorkSafeBC benefits. Our client filed a complaint under the Human Rights Code and the employer applied to dismiss the complaint under s. 27(1)(c) of the Code. We resited the application to dismiss and it was denied as the employer was unsuccessful in showing that the complaint had no reasonable prospect of success. Importantly, the tribunal found that “determinations made by WorkSafeBC abour whether an employee can return to a pre-injury job are not based on a human rights analysis of whether an employer has fulfilled its duty to accommodate.”

Chris was co-counsel for the defendant in a case where the plaintiff claimed that the defendant intentionally ran him over with her vehicle. After a six day trial, the Court dismissed the plaintiff’s claims for aggravated and punitive damages and found the plaintiff was in fact 50% responsible for the incident.

Judicial review – Workers Compensation Board accepted our client’s claim for a back injury sustained on a first day on the job with her new employer. In setting her long-term wage rate, WCB found her to be a ‘temporary’ worker. We argued for our client that her employment was permanent. WCAT dismissed our claim and affirmed the initial WCB decision. We petitioned the BC Supreme Court, and the Court found the WCAT decision was patently unreasonable as it failed to make findings about the words of our client’s oral employment contract. This judicial review presented an interesting intersection of employment law, workers compensation law, and administrative law. Read Chris’ blog post about this case here.

Chris’ client was denied Employment Insurance benefits after the Commission determined that she had left her job voluntarily. We appealed to the Social Security Tribunal and successfully argued that our client was in fact terminated from employment and therefore she was entitled to EI benefits. She received a retroactive payment and ongoing support during her search for new employment.