Dr. Rehan Dost

The applicant was injured in a motor vehicle accident and sought a determination of catastrophic impairment.

Her assessor combined physical and psychological impairments to reach a 55% whole person impairment, following the methodology in Desbiens v. Mordini.

The insurer's assessors refused to assign numeric ratings to psychological impairments, finding only a 20% impairment.

The arbitrator held that the Desbiens approach is binding and correct in law, allowing the combination of physical and psychological impairments.

Furthermore, the arbitrator found that issue estoppel applied, as the insurer had previously litigated and lost this exact issue against the applicant before the Director.

The applicant was declared catastrophically impaired.

The applicant was injured when her bicycle was struck by a parked car's door.

She was later diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and claimed statutory accident benefits, arguing the trauma from the accident triggered her MS.

The arbitrator reviewed expert neurological evidence on the theory that trauma can disrupt the blood-brain barrier and trigger latent MS.

The arbitrator found the theory speculative and concluded the applicant failed to prove the accident triggered her MS, noting she had pre-accident neurological symptoms and lacked evidence of serious trauma.

The claims for income replacement benefits, medical benefits, and a special award were dismissed.