ROSS MCLARTY

Partner

Overview

Ross was born in Princeton, New Jersey of Canadian parents and attended several universities including the University of Wisconsin where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree (Economics) in 1973. In 1977, he received his law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto and was called to the bar in British Columbia in 1978. He has practiced as a litigator ever since working in several litigation firms prior to becoming a partner at Macaulay McColl and ultimately establishing McLarty Wolf together with Murray Wolf in 2002.

Early in his career Ross gained experience in a broad range of insurance, commercial, municipal and criminal litigation cases. He has maintained an interest in handling a broad range of challenging cases. He has been active in Continuing Legal Education having co-coordinated Continuing Legal Education litigation courses for lawyers as well as delivering papers at a number of courses pertaining to litigation, litigation technology and insurance issues.

Ross is peer rated BV Distinguished© by Martindale Hubbell in both legal ability and ethical standards.

Insurance Experience

Insurance has been the focus of Ross’s legal practice for many years. This initially involved acting for insurance companies, primarily ICBC, in defending personal injury and property damage claims. Ross worked for several years as in-house counsel for a large Canadian liability insurer, Canadian Indemnity. Thereafter, Ross’s insurance practice consisted of primarily defense work, acting for a variety of insurers in the defense of property, products liability and bodily injury claims. This work regularly involved detailed fact investigations, instructing experts, interpreting insurance policies as well as conducting trials, including a number of jury trials.

Over 10 years ago the focus of Ross’s practice changed from acting primarily for insurers to acting against them for parties who had insurance problems – for example where the insurance company told his client there was no coverage under the insurance policy or where the insurer failed to make a fair settlement with their insured. Since then, Ross has acted for large corporations, governmental agencies as well as individuals who required legal representation to resolve insurance issues.

Ross has handled a variety of insurance disputes for clients, including claims under life insurance and disability policies, the valuation of property damage, CGL and professional liability policy interpretation, bad faith claims, coverage issues with respect to care custody and control, intentional act, late reporting, misrepresentation and other exclusions that insurers often rely on to deny coverage.

Practically speaking this experience means Ross knows how insurance claims are defended and how to provide practical advice and when necessary, effectively prosecute and resolve claims against insurers.

Public and Personal Interests

Ross is currently a member of the Kenneth Gordon School Foundation board. He formerly served as Board Chair for Kenneth Gordon School, the Board of the Society for Excellence in Education, Board Chair of the STARS Therapeutic Riding Society and a member of the Law Society of British Columbia Bencher’s subcommittee on Technology.

He is the father of four and has a number of interests including education, music, and motorcycles.

Professional Development

Continuing Legal Education – Co-Coordinator, “Civil Litigation Conference”, November 17, 2000; Course co-coordinator CLE “Examination for Discovery”, 1999

Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia (Trial Advocacy, Civil Litigation and Insurance Seminars), presenter, Law Society Legal Technology Course, Litigation section, 2002, Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia; People’s Law School; co-author Civil Procedure-Rules Update, 2002 Annual Review of Law and Practice, The Continuing Legal Education Society of BC,

2017 Continuing Legal Education Society, Examinations for Discovery practice, presenter.

Professional Associations

ROSS MCLARTY

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