Top personal injury lawyer Scott Nicoll with the Surrey-based law firm of Hamilton-Duncan-Armstrong- Stewart (HDAS) has been a litigator in this field for many, many years and there are a number of things he has learned but at the top of it is that when people are seeking out a personal injury lawyer after an accident, they need to keep a few things in mind but most important is that you should always get a lawyer that ICBC takes seriously.
“It’s not about a lawyer who can get you money faster but someone who is going to do all the work that is required, which means proper medical assessment and so on, to get you the best compensation for your injuries,” Nicoll told the LINK.
“If your case is sound and you are properly prepared then there is nothing to fear from ICBC. I tell my clients that treatment is key to determining compensation and it is my job to do all I can to prepare the best case which may take more time but it’s worth the effort, especially in cases where the injury may have severe long term effects that the client may not be aware of now but will suffer from them later in their life,” Nicoll said.
Nicoll, one of the HDAS’s senior litigation partners, acts primarily for plaintiffs in personal injury claims (including motor vehicle accidents) and class actions and for both plaintiffs and defendants in complex corporate/commercial litigation and Society Act claims. He also has considerable experience in board and corporate governance matters and shareholder disputes.
Nicoll, who has a track record of success with getting his clients huge awards and settlements, including a $1.3 million for a South Asian client in a case of ICBC Vs. Khosa, says he negotiates hard with the Crown corporation because he is able to counter their case, including their army of experts, by being very thorough and preparing his clients for the long haul.
Nicoll is proud of his firm’s association with the large South Asian community in Surrey with almost two-third of their clients being South Asian. He says they are always welcome to consult as the firm has full service Hindi and Punjabi speaking staff.
Aside from having acted for a variety of clients during his career, including successfully representing large institutional clients, societies and individual plaintiffs, Nicoll’s also acted for victims in the $100 million ponzi scheme involving Notary Public Rashida Samji.
“It was pretty apparent it was a fraud from the outset,” he told the Surrey Leader newspaper in a recent story.
Nicoll said the Surrey victims he represented invested between $50,000 and $1.1 million each.
“They were either elderly or still working in very average jobs,” he said. “These were not people who could afford to lose these investments and then go on about their lives.”
Nicoll said Samji succeeded in keeping her scheme afloat for so long in part because she ensnared a former investment advisor Arvin Patel at Coast Capital Savings, who has also recently been charged for his part in the scheme.
He is now pressing the Society of Notaries Public of B.C. to agree to use its special compensation fund to help Samji’s victims recoup more of their losses.
Nicoll, who was born in White Rock, BC in 1964 and graduated from Saint George’s School in Vancouver, in 1982, obtained his B.A.(Hons) from Queen’s University in 1986, his M.A. from the University of British Columbia in 1988 and, after taking time off to work for the Government of Ontario, obtained his LLB from the University of Victoria in 1993. He was called to the Bar in British Columbia in 1994.
Nicoll, who has served on the Board of Governors of Kwantlen Polytechnic University for six years, serving as the Board Chair for more than two of those years, currently serves on the Board of Directors of Food Banks BC and The Surrey Urban Mission.
