Sandra Kovacs *

Sandy is a leading personal injury lawyer in Vancouver; she practices out of both our Vancouver and Surrey offices. Alongside Marc Kazimirski, she is also an adjunct professor teaching Law 435: Personal Injury Law at the UBC Allard School of Law.  She is a past president of the Vancouver Bar Association and a past president of the Lawyers’ Inn Society (Law Courts Inn). A vocal advocate for mental health and addiction awareness and compassion, Sandy recently spoke on the “Lived Experience” panel at the CLEBC’s Mental Health Forum for Legal Professionals 2021, co-hosted by the Law Society of British Columbia.

Prior to joining the plaintiffs’ bar in 2016, Sandy worked for more than a decade as insurance defence counsel, mostly in aviation, occupier’s liability, sexual misconduct, and medical malpractice matters. Since 2016, she has worked exclusively for plaintiffs with complex personal injury claims for losses arising from historical sexual assault, traumatic brain injuries, addiction, orthopedic injuries, and chronic pain.

Sandy achieved what is considered the largest personal injury judgment in the history of the province for a severely brain injured plaintiff, in Uy v. Dhillon, 2020 BCSC 1302 ($9.1m), and she achieved a record punitive damages award against a Roman Catholic Diocese in a historical sexual abuse and exploitation claim, the first involving an adult victim in Canada, in Anderson v. Molon, 2020 BCSC 1247.   In Crawford v. Nazif, 2019 BCSC 2337, she advocated for a vulnerable elderly plaintiff through a jury trial against a defendant physician; that trial resulted in a settlement on the 13th day of a 19-day trial, because of her strong advocacy in the courtroom.  Most recently, Sandy successfully proved a causal link between motor vehicle accident-related polytrauma and addiction in T.S. v. Gough, 2022 BCSC 264, and following her advocacy for a survivor in Doe v. A.B., 2021 BCSC 651, it is now certain that the BC Supreme Court can take judicial notice of the objective harm that befalls plaintiffs in sexual abuse cases if their identity is disclosed.

Professionally, Sandy is known for her integrity and tenacity in her advocacy, and for her sincere compassion for her clients’ circumstances. A survivor of historical sexual abuse herself, she is resolute in her commitment to meaningfully improve access to justice and advance the law in this important area of practice.

*Practicing through a professional law corporation