What is the test for determining future care costs for a plaintiff?

To be awarded, future care costs must be justified both because they are medically necessary and they are likely to be incurred by the plaintiff. The award of damages is thus a matter of prediction as to what will happen in future. If a plaintiff has not used a particular item or service in the past it may be inappropriate to include its cost in a future care award: Izony v. Weidlich, 2006 BCSC 1315, para. 74. In my view, however, while the plaintiff’s past conduct may assist in predicting the future it is not necessarily determinative. Rather, the focus of inquiry when an item or service is reasonably necessary, but previously unused, is whether it is likely to be incurred on going forward basis.