Since the passage of the Minor Injury Regulation (MIR) on Oct.
1, 2004, Alberta courts have been active in refining and clarifying
its scope and application. In the Feb. 23 decision in
McLean v. Parmar [2015] A.J. No. 214, Justice Kristine
Eidsvik of the Court of Queen's Bench further refines the
definition of "minor injury" in relation to claims
arising from chronic pain. This decision is also noteworthy for its
treatment of the plaintiff's claim for loss of earning
capacity, which challenges previous approaches to calculating these
claims using gender-specific statistics.
The plaintiff in this matter suffered numerous injuries as a
result of a motor vehicle accident, including soft-tissue injuries
as well as a number of injuries outside the scope of the MIR. In
particular, the plaintiff claimed to have suffered chronic pain in
relation to soft-tissue injuries which was ongoing for
approximately 2 1/2 years. Although the plaintiff admitted that she
had
