B.C.’s Attorney General is firing back at a former NDP Premier over this week’s changes at ICBC capping minor injury payouts and introducing a tribunal for disputed claims under $50,000.

Dave Eby says Ujjal Dosanjh has a very personal reason for being angry at the provincial government for making these changes with both of his sons being lawyers.

“I would do the same thing. If there was a policy change that was impacting my son’s business, of course he is 4 right now so it will be a while yet, but I would certainly would be speaking up about it. I am glad he is. The reality is we do not have a choice here. One of his sons is a former president of trial lawyers. Both his sons work in a firm that specializes in car accident work. This is going to dramatically impact lawyers who do this kind of work. It is going to impact the people who work for them. It is not a good outcome.”

Eby adds “I am grateful for the work that personal injury lawyers do. The reality however is that we are changing the system and the system needs to change because we are losing about a billion dollars a year. We need a more efficient system.”

Eby says with the old system allowing a flood of personal injury claims to swamp the courts contributing heavily to massive legal costs action had to be taken.

“So we cannot afford that system so we are changing to this new system, which enables us to increase those benefits. That is why we have the support of the vast majority of the disability groups across the province because we are finally increasing these benefits. Also because we are preserving a system where people are able to resolve their disputes with ICBC in front of an independent tribunal. I understand that the personal injury lawyers, and Mr. Dosanjh’s sons in particular, are very upset with this. The reality is we have to make this change there is no choice.”

This week the province capped minor injury payouts and debuted a tribunal to deal with claims disputes valued under $50,000.

Former Premier Ujjal Dosanjh responded to what Eby had to say on Twitter.

His tweet is posted below