We have some good news to report about an IRP victory that never got much press.
We learned yesterday that in one fiscal year the BC Government paid approximately $732,000 to some people who were wrongly sent to the Remedial Programs. This is our IRP victory. It happened because of our challenge to the former practice at RoadSafetyBC of requiring everyone who received an IRP automatically to be referred to the Responsible Driving Program and Interlock Program without the possibility reconsideration or any review of their driving record.
We had to advise clients regarding the high-percentage chance of a quick-money settlement.
Mixed feelings about this IRP victory
We’ve succeeded in countless individual IRPs and we’re always very happy for our clients. However, we like to think that it’s more rewarding to do things that chip away at the law or that exposes some of the irreparable problems with the IRP legal scheme.
In the first few months of 2013 we dealt the IRP scheme a major blow when we sued to show that their handling of the remedial requirements had been badly botched and was, in fact, illegal. The Government conceded the point, first for 1137 people and then for thousands of others who were contacted and told that they could have their interlock removed.
It was a nice time for us. There was a lot of discussion about a class-action suit for this malfeasance. Quickly the Government put a plan into action. Many people contacted us to say that they’re received a letter from the Government offering them a cheque but it came with strings attached.
We wrote about it at the time and explained that in our view it was a trap. The problem was it appeared to us that the Government was offering to pay people out on the condition that they waive any chance to collect at any other time concerning their IRP. Some people would be offered money and others would not.
Who wins in the IRP lottery?
We would never learn of how the lucky were selected. This was an issue between RoadSafetyBC and their lawyers which means it was protected by solicitor-client privilege and nobody was talking.
We were contacted by many people who received the offer. Very few knew that we were responsible for all of this. We were asked for legal advice. The question came down to this: should I sign this waiver and take the money, or should I hold out for something better.
Difficult advice
Each person had to decide on their own. If everyone or a large number of people stuck together we would be in a better position to advance a lawsuit that could get a remedy to spread around. As well, for us the IRP scheme has meant a lot of unrewarding work for little money and often without any pay whatsoever. We hoped that this might be an opportunity to earn a decent paycheque while helping out a lot of people.
Legal ethics
As a lawyer there are always ethical conflicts and issues to resolve. We try to explain our decisions and advice so that our clients best understand why we give them the advice that we do. In this case we had to advise clients regarding the high-percentage chance of a quick-money settlement versus a speculative chance at potentially a larger settlement or award from the court. What would you do?
A bird in the hand
We have strong ideals. Still, pragmatism is the number one commodity in our office. A certain payout is better than a future speculative payout. We explained this to our clients and people who sought our advice.
In the end the BC Government quietly paid out approximately $732,000. The Government bought silence. They did some damage to the proposed class-action suits. They succeeded in doing it without the media catching on or reporting on it.
See our smiling faces?
We toil to keep up our challenges to the IRP scheme. We deal with hundreds of people, most of whom are happy with our work and some of whom hate us because in their case we didn’t win. We decided early on to find ways to challenge IRPs for the lowest possible legal fees without compromising the quality of our work.
We are the best if you count the number of wins. That has been one benefit of charging lows fees and therefore dealing with more IRPs. We became shockingly good at what we do and for a long time now we’ve been the number one IRP office in BC. But sometimes it’s not very rewarding.
Thousands of people had their interlock removed and many people got a cheque from the BC Government because of our efforts. For our work we didn’t get anything.
It takes some of the wind out of our sails. Often it seems like we’re alone in our struggle. We spend our own time and money taking on the IRP scheme. We had an IRP victory and in the end we got nothing for our work.