Deadlines for Filing an Injury Claim

If you were seriously injured in an accident or even if you were hurt but are unsure whether your injuries will heal quickly or permanently, you need to be aware that there are several deadlines for reporting injuries and filing a claim.  For this reason, it is prudent to both seek immediate medical attention and also, to learn about your legal rights for injury compensation. 

The advantages of immediate medical attention are many: injuries need to be assessed to determine the most effective treatment and follow-up care; by following your physician’s recommendations you reduce the chance of future complications and optimize the recovery process; and your medical assessments serve as evidence for the severity of your injuries should you decide to seek compensation.

Early consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer gives you the opportunity to learn about your best options for compensation, to ensure that you receive the benefits to which you’re entitled and also, to prevent you from losing out because you missed a deadline for filing a claim.

If you suffered serious injuries in any type of accident due to the negligence of another party, you are entitled to file a negligence suit against the individual or parties responsible for your injuries.  This applies to injuries resulting from car accidents, slip, trip and fall incidents, recreational accidents, dog bites, property liability incidents or unsafe products.  If any of these circumstances caused serious injuries, you may be entitled to claim for lost income, medical and rehabilitation expenses, housekeeping and home maintenance expenses, attendant care, and other losses that directly resulted from your accident and injuries.

In addition to the legal prerogative to sue the negligent party for damages, anyone injured in a car accident is also entitled to make a motor vehicle accident benefits claim against their insurance company.  Pedestrians, cyclists and motorists injured in car accidents are all entitled to make this type of claim for injury compensation.  In the case of uninsured pedestrians, cyclists or passengers, they can claim against the insurance policy of their driver or a driver involved in the accident.  Injured persons who wish to claim for accident benefits are obligated to inform their automobile insurance company of their injuries within 7 days of the accident, and must complete an Application for Accident Benefits within 30 days that documents their injuries and medical treatments.

Claims for injury compensation against a municipality are also subject to a deadline for notifying the government of your injuries. Persons injured on municipal property or by a municipal vehicle must notify the clerk for the municipality in writing, within 10 days of their accident.  Claims that fail to meet this deadline may be dismissed unless a judge finds that there was sufficient reason for the delay and only if the municipality is not disadvantaged in its defense.

Anyone who is considering a civil suit against the ‘at fault’ party for injury compensation is subject to a further deadline for commencing their claim.  The Ontario Limitation Act, 2002, specifies that individuals must file their personal injury claim within two years of the date when they discover they have reason to make a claim for compensation.  In most cases, this is two years after the date of the accident which caused their injuries.  Essentially, you have two years from the date you knew or ought to have known that you have grounds to make a claim.

Insurance companies often challenge and/or attempt to dismiss claims that are made more than two years after an accident based on the argument that the claim is statute-barred by the Limitation Act.  However, legal counsel for accident victims may successfully defend such claims if they can show that the injured person filed a claim as soon as they genuinely discovered the seriousness of their injuries.

In a 2015 trial, Naipaul v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Co., State Farm sought to have a claim arising out of a car accident dismissed for failing to meet the two year deadline.  The claim resulted when two occupants of a vehicle were injured while their vehicle was hit by an uninsured driver in May 2010.  In August 2010, the plaintiff’s attorney gave notice of their claim to their own insurer, State Farm, for uninsured motorist coverage.  Unfortunately, the lawyer for the plaintiffs unintentionally failed to include State Farm as a defendant in the Statement of Claim issued in May 2012.  When the error was noticed in September 2012, the plaintiffs initiated an action against State Farm. At that point, State Farm argued that because it was now past the two year limitation period, the claim was statute-barred and further, the original notice letter of August 2010 proves that the plaintiffs knew about their claim more than two years prior.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs countered with the argument that the plaintiffs did not have evidence before September 2010 that their injuries met the threshold of serious and permanent injuries defined in the Insurance Act.  The judge referenced a 2010 case, Everding v. Skrijel, in making his judgement.  In the latter trial, the Court applied the threshold requirements pertaining to the discoverability principle of the Limitations Act.  Specifically, an injured person will not have discovered their claim until they know that they have a substantive chance to succeed in seeking damages for their injuries.  Accordingly, the judge decided that when the notice letters were written, the plaintiffs did not yet have enough medical evidence to persuade a judge that their injuries satisfied that threshold.  Consequently, the two year limitation period did not commence with the posting of the notice letters, and State Farm’s motion to have the plaintiff’s claim statute-barred was dismissed accordingly.   

In another 2015 trial, Farhat v. Monteanu, the defendant’s lawyer filed an action to have a claim against them dismissed because it was commenced two years and a month after the date of the accident.  The plaintiff, Mr. Farhat, was injured when his vehicle was rear-ended by Ms. Monteanu’s vehicle.  The plaintiff immediately retained legal representation for a potential accident benefit claim and negligence suit, and Ms. Monteanu was duly informed that the plaintiff had suffered serious injuries.  Although his negligence claim was initiated more than two years after the accident, the judge found in favour of Mr. Farhat who did not discover the severity and permanence of his injury until significant time had passed but then took reasonable and prompt action to file a claim as soon as he was aware that his injury met the threshold under the Insurance Act.

Injuries do not always heal in predictable ways and sometimes they result in medical complications for one person but not another.  Some injuries, such as neurological damage and chronic pain syndrome from which Mr. Farhat was suffering, take a substantial time to fully diagnose.  Although there is a legal presumption that the limitation period begins on the day of an accident, the courts can be convinced to extend this period if they are persuaded that the plaintiff did not discover the seriousness of their injury within the limitation period and also acted with due diligence to discover if they had grounds for a claim.

The Injury Lawyers of Ontario (ILO) are dedicated personal injury lawyers who specialize in injuries arising from car accidents, slip and fall accident and other forms of accidental injuries.  If you or a family member were injured in an accident, you need an attorney with substantive experience and expertise in negligence and insurance law, and who is prepared to fight for your right to fair compensation.   Give us a call today and allow us to learn about the unique facts of your case and provide you with a strategy for winning your claim.  You are under no obligation and the first consultation is free.