Call them poor losers, call it poor judgment, call it institutional stupidity – but whatever you want to call it, you’re paying for it.
Our front-page story today details a disturbing legal case.
You may have read about it in a previous edition of this paper. In a nutshell it goes like this: ICBC screwed up.
The longer version is that ICBC went after a woman for fraud, the woman sued ICBC for malicious prosecution.
During discussions the woman said she would settle for $10,000 in 2013. ICBC said no and went to court and the woman was awarded nearly $400,000 in damages. The judge in the case lambasted ICBC.
Now ICBC is appealing that judgment.
We get how this happens in legal cases. Lawyers for ICBC will say that the judgment is too high and sets a dangerous precedent. That’s their job to nitpick the legal boundaries of such things. But here’s what’s also true. ICBC should have owned up to its first misstep, when it did not settle the case for $10,000.
Someone should have been paying attention. And someone should have taken responsibility for messing it all up. And while $400,000 seems high, consider this: This woman spent over a decade wrestling with ICBC and being labelled as a fraudster. What is a person’s reputation worth? And, if you’ve ever been kept awake all night when you’ve just got a speeding ticket, consider what it’s like to have a major case like this hanging over your head for a decade?
At $400,000 that’s about $40,000 a year – a small amount to pay for the emotional distress and violations involved.
As the woman’s lawyer says, “It seems to me, everything about this case is bad for the government and bad for ICBC. The more they beat their drum the worse it is.”
The government needs to pick up the phone, call the head honchos at ICBC and tell them to drop the appeal. Just drop it. And if the legal beagles start crying about precedents, here’s what we have to say about that – how about setting a new precedent? One that recognizes ICBC and its employees screwed up and need to acknowledge that fact, make sure it doesn’t happen again, and move on.
Accidents happen. People make mistakes. But trying to effectively punish the woman a second time is simply wrong.
And, if ICBC insists on doing this, then use a kickstarter fundraiser like FundAid or GoFundMe to raise the legal funds. Don’t use our hard-earned dollars.
