Western Standard - Calgary man rebuilds life after receiving more than $1M in auto insurance settlement

Parsa Amiri was seriously injured in a crash on the Trans-Canada Highway, a crash that left him with permanent nerve damage and changed the course of his life. He says his lawyer helped him get a second chance in life after securing a $1 million settlement.

00:00:00.000 Parsa Amiri, a former athlete from Calgary, was seriously injured in a crash on the Trans-Canada

00:00:07.640 Highway, a crash that left him with permanent nerve damage and changed the course of his life.

00:00:15.060 So my accident happened in 2020, beginning of it in January. And basically what happened is

00:00:23.320 we got in a car accident and I had a severe whiplash injury where I broke four to five

00:00:32.200 bones in my spine. And one of them basically came out of place. It was pinching my spinal cord

00:00:40.720 and that caused a lot of issues in my back, including some nerve damage to my legs and

00:00:48.440 things like that. So I had to get surgery and they removed the bone and replaced it with a

00:00:56.280 bunch of rods, things like that to stabilize it. And yeah, that was pretty much it.

00:01:02.560 He says his lawyer helped him get a second chance in life after securing a $1 million settlement.

00:01:10.760 Right. I have the opportunity to go to school thanks to that, which is, you know, something

00:01:16.100 else I can start, right? It's something I can think about. And all the years that I couldn't work,

00:01:23.420 and even now I can't really do anything crazy, right? I can't constantly work. My body is not in

00:01:29.800 shape anymore. It's constantly in pain. I'm always going to physio and, you know, I need treatment

00:01:38.300 every couple of weeks to be able to even move properly. So paying for all that is insanely high,

00:01:44.800 you're paying like over $100 almost weekly. So without support from a lawyer, there's no way

00:01:53.180 anyone can afford that. But in 2027, Alberta will move to a no-fault system, eliminating the right to

00:02:01.840 sue. It's because of the tort system and the current system that I was able to get involved

00:02:07.740 and fight to get him the treatment that he so desperately needed. And I also think it's important

00:02:12.840 to note that someone like Parsa with, you know, the severe injuries he had, like broken vertebrae in

00:02:17.500 his neck and back, he was awarded in excess of a million dollars. And under the new system,

00:02:23.160 the Care First no-fault system, he would get only a maximum of up to $187,000. And also,

00:02:32.360 he would not have a lawyer in his corner. He would have to deal with the insurance company

00:02:37.100 by himself. And the insurance company would get to be the judge, jury, and executioner on what

00:02:44.040 treatment he gets, if he gets treatment, and how long he gets treatment for. Amiri is now studying

00:02:50.100 law, hoping others won't lose the right that helped him rebuild his life.

00:02:55.260 Tula Maslum, Western Standard.

Western Standard - August 06, 2025

Calgary man rebuilds life after receiving more than $1M in auto insurance settlement

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