If a resident of Ontario were to get injured in a car accident, he or she could not dispense with filing a personal injury claim until a date in the future when he or she feels ready to do so. According to the Limitations Act of 2002, that injured victim has only 2 years in which to initiate any type of legal action.
What is the starting date for that 2-year period?
That 2-year limitation period starts on the day when the victim discovered that he or she had a claim. That is usually the day of the collision. Legally it is most definitely the day when the victim realized, or should have realized, that there were grounds for filing a claim.
Are there any exceptions to the rules in the Limitations Act?
Yes, according to personal injury lawyer in Chatham, the rules in that Act do not apply if the accident victim happens to be a minor. In that case, the limitation period would start on the day that the same victim became 18 years of age. By the same token, those rules would not apply if the victim’s injury had made him or her physically, mentally or psychologically unable to pursue a personal injury claim.
Special rules that relate to the limitations period:
If for some reason, the victim of an accident has chosen to file a claim against the Provincial Crown, he or she must give the Crown notice of that fact, and then wait 60 days before initiating a lawsuit. The offices of the Crown must be given that period of time, in order to prepare a defense.
If a driver gets injured in an accident that was the fault of a municipality, that same driver needs to follow another specific rule. That rule states that the municipality should be given notice of the driver’s intentions within 10 days of the accident. Yet, if someone had been killed in that accident, or if a judge agreed to grant an exception, the driver’s responsibility would be waived.
What sort of incident might push someone to consider suing a municipality?
Municipalities in Ontario are responsible for maintaining the highways and bridges within their borders. If a car got damaged when its tires fell into a rut on a highway, and if the driver or any passenger got injured, the municipality might become the target of a lawsuit.
Still, the person filing that lawsuit could only expect to win that case, if the municipality had received another notice about the same rut, and had failed to act in response to that earlier notice. If the driver’s notice called attention to and elicited the needed correction, the sued municipality would not be made responsible for damages/ injuries.