With the Auto Accident Survivor’s Guide for British Columbia, author Jill Franklin has written the sort of book which, as she notes in the introduction, she needed in 1990 when she was seriously injured in a motor vehicle pedestrian accident in Vancouver. She’s done a great service to auto accident victims in BC by producing a superb consumer advocacy guide in this important and, until now, overlooked field.

In researching the book, Ms. Franklin consulted with numerous experts in the areas of law, medicine, government, the insurance industry, finance, and disability and rehabilitation therapy. She also studied the legal statutes and regulations that apply to motor vehicle accident claims in British Columbia before setting out in a systematic and logically intuitive fashion the process by which injury claims are handled in BC.

This extremely well-written book is to be recommended.

Ms. Franklin notes that her post-injury experiences proved that justice doesn’t simply magically materialize for an auto accident victim. Rather, she says, that person needs to understand how the medico-legal system works and know whom they can trust along the way if they are to be treated fairly in the end. She is also quick to point out that frequently the assistance of a lawyer experienced in these cases is necessary, if not vital, to obtaining justice.

The Auto Accident Survivor’s Guide is a highly instructive and very readable manual for the lay person and deserves high marks for its thoroughness and balanced approach. As such, it would serve as an excellent introduction to the handling of personal injury cases for young lawyers entering the field.

The book will appeal to those persons injured in motor vehicle accidents who wish to make informed decisions about their recovery and legal rights at every step along the way

David N. Osborne
Past President, Trial Lawyers Association of BC