Category: Personal Injury
Personal injury law in Ontario is less about proving that you were hurt than about proving it on time. Several of the deadlines that decide these claims run in days, not years, and they start before most injured people have seen a doctor, let alone a lawyer. This section covers the rules that actually end claims, the benefits that run alongside a lawsuit, and what compensation is realistically worth.
The deadlines that end Ontario injury claims. The two-year basic limitation period in the Limitations Act, 2002 is the one everybody knows, and it is rarely the one that causes the damage. Two shorter notice rules do most of the harm. Under section 6.1 of the Occupiers Liability Act, a claim for injury caused by snow or ice needs written notice within 60 days of the fall, served personally or by registered mail on the occupier and on any contractor who did the winter maintenance. Under section 44(10) of the Municipal Act, 2001, a claim against a municipality over a road or sidewalk needs written notice within 10 days.
Both rules have narrow escape hatches, and neither is forgiving of a notice that arrives on time but names the wrong location. Municipal sidewalk snow and ice claims face a further hurdle: section 44(9) requires gross negligence, a materially harder standard than ordinary negligence. Our guide to slip and fall claims in Ontario sets out both notice regimes side by side, with what each notice must contain and who has to be served.
Benefits and lawsuits run on two separate tracks. After a motor vehicle collision in Ontario, accident benefits and a tort claim proceed in parallel under different rules, with different deadlines and different decision-makers. The Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule governs the benefits side no matter who caused the crash. Where an injury stops someone working, a long-term disability claim may be the more important file of the two, and insurers terminate those benefits far more often than most claimants expect. Where the injury came from a crime rather than an accident, court-ordered restitution works differently again, and is not a substitute for a civil claim.
How to use this section. Each guide is written to be checked rather than trusted. Statutory provisions are cited by section number and linked to the official consolidations on Ontario e-Laws and Justice Laws, fees and thresholds are given with the date they took effect, and anything that could not be verified against a primary source is left out rather than guessed at. Where a rule turns on facts that vary case to case, the guides say so instead of offering a number.
Related material sits elsewhere on the site. Claims under CA$35,000 may belong in Small Claims Court rather than the Superior Court. Workplace injuries engage the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the workers compensation system. Evidence in most injury files is put before the court by affidavit, and the procedural framework is the Rules of Civil Procedure.
This section is legal information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create a lawyer and client relationship. Deadlines in injury matters are short and unforgiving, so anyone with a live claim should get advice from a licensee of the Law Society of Ontario before a notice period runs out.
