Learning Hub
A Guide to Personal Injury Claims
Two questions come up in almost every first call to McNally Gervan LLP’s Ottawa office after a crash or a bad fall. Do I have a claim, and what is it worth? You likely have a claim if someone else’s negligence caused your injury and you act within Ontario’s limitation period, which in most cases gives you two years. What the claim is worth depends on the seriousness of your injuries and the insurance coverage available, and any share of fault assigned to you will shrink the number.
Answering those two questions is the core of our personal injury practice. This page is a personal injury guide that lays out how claims work in this province, walks through the main topics one at a time, and points you toward the detailed resources that sit beneath it.
Understanding Personal Injury Claims and Time Limits
Personal injury claims in Ontario usually begin with medical care and evidence gathering. Seek treatment promptly, report all symptoms, and attend follow-up appointments. Medical records help document your injuries, while gaps in treatment can give insurers room to question their seriousness.
Preserve evidence early by taking photos, keeping witness information, and holding on to relevant physical items. Deadlines can also come quickly. Municipal claims may require notice within ten days, and snow or ice claims on private property carry a sixty-day notice period. A general two-year limitation period may also apply.
If the matter does not settle, it may move through the court filing of a statement of claim, document exchange, examinations for discovery, and mediation.
Compensation & Damages
What a claim is worth turns on the heads of damages (categories of compensation) available to the victim. Compensation can cover pain and suffering, lost income, treatment costs, and future care needs, and it can be reduced if you are found partly responsible for the accident.
Two statutory rules set car accident claims apart. Awards for pain and suffering in those cases face a statutory deductible that resets each year and currently sits above $47,000, and injuries must meet a legislated threshold of serious and permanent impairment before that head of damages becomes available at all. These rules exist nowhere else in Ontario injury law, which is why motor vehicle accident cases get handled differently from day one.
Insurance Claims
An insurer may contact you soon after the accident or make an early settlement offer before your long-term recovery is clear. Speaking with legal counsel before giving a recorded statement or accepting an offer can help protect your claim.
In motor vehicle cases, your own insurer pays accident benefits regardless of who caused the collision, covering treatment costs and income replacement up to policy limits. A separate tort claim (civil lawsuit) against the at-fault driver covers pain and suffering along with losses the benefits never reach. Insurers scrutinize both streams closely, so how and when you communicate with them shapes the file from the outset.
After a Car Accident
The days following a collision set the foundation for the claim. Get medical attention even if symptoms seem minor, photograph the scene and the vehicles, and collect names and contact details from witnesses.
Notice deadlines arrive fast. Motor vehicle insurers generally expect notice within seven days, and accident benefits applications have a thirty-day deadline. Missing either can complicate an otherwise strong claim, which is why we encourage people to call before speaking with any adjuster.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the personal injury guidelines?
Personal injury guidelines are the legal standards a claim must meet, beginning with the four elements of negligence, which are duty of care, breach, causation, and damages. Ontario adds its own rules, including a two-year limitation period and a deductible on pain and suffering in car accident claims.
What is the hardest injury to prove?
Invisible injuries are the hardest to prove, with chronic pain and concussions leading the list because they do not appear on standard imaging. Psychological conditions sit in the same category. These claims succeed on consistent medical records and expert evidence built up over months of treatment. The evidence and witness statements of close friends, co-workers and family members can be helpful to support these types of claims.
What is the average personal injury settlement in Ontario?
There is no meaningful average personal injury settlement in Ontario, and any figure you read online should be treated with suspicion. Awards range from a few thousand dollars to several million. Injury severity and lost income drive most of the settlement numbers, which is why we assess every injury case individually.
Talk to McNally Gervan LLP About Your Injury Claim
The strongest claims are the ones where the evidence was gathered early and the deadlines were protected from the start. Two years passes quickly when you are recovering, and the shorter notice periods pass quicker still. Read the detailed guides parented under this page, then bring McNally Gervan LLP the questions no website could answer about your specific situation. Contact our Ottawa office for a candid assessment of your claim and what it may be worth.
Follow Us