The decision came down early this morning and within minutes it hit the news. The bottom line is that nothing changes for people who were issued an IRP between June 15, 2012 and today. The court has given the rubber stamp to the status quo.
SCC rules on IRPs
The first version of the IRP scheme is still unconstitutional. The decision confirmed that finding, originally held by the BC Supreme Court and BC Court of Appeal. No change there. The first version of the IRP scheme was unconstitutional, but that’s not the version in effect today.
The lawyers for the drivers had hoped the Court would go further and perhaps strike down the law on the basis of it being outside of the legislative power of the Province. They didn’t succeed.
We’re sad that the IRP law will remain on the books. We’re pleased that we have succeeded for so many people from around the province in IRP appeal hearings.
The Province wanted the court to say that the law was constitutional and that the BC Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal were wrong. The Province didn’t succeed.
The implications
The significant implication is for people who received IRPs under the first scheme. It has yet to be determined if there is some sort of remedy. We’ve always been pessimistic about that and remain so today.
As far as anyone hoping for something good for an IRP issued between June 15, 2012 and today, the news is only bad. There is no constitutional defence. There may be defences on the merits, which is how we win most of the time in any event, but there is no grand sweeping decision that helps in any way.
Vindication of our method
We try to succeed in each case for each client. Some other firms took the view that they should only argue constitutional arguments. We thought that was wrong.
Since September 20, 2010 when the law first came out we’ve been digging for evidence and identifying defences to challenge IRPs and win them whenever possible at the first step. Looking back this was the right way to approach IRP defence.
We’re sad that the IRP law will remain on the books. We’re pleased that we have succeeded for so many people from around the province in IRP appeal hearings.
On a final note, there are dozens of issues concerning IRPs that have yet to be litigated. Some we will win and some we will lose. We’ve held back because there was no point in running judicial reviews when the law was impugned. Now we can pull the trigger.
Links to the decisions:
Goodwin v. British Columbia (Superintendent of Motor Vehicles) http://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/15550/index.do
Wilson v. British Columbia (Superintendent of Motor Vehicles) http://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/15549/index.do