Ontario legal information · Ottawa and Eastern Ontario
The useful question is narrower than it first appears.
Identify the event, injury discovery, denials, defendants and any facts affecting discoverability.2
Do not assume negotiation, treatment or an open insurer file suspends a civil limitation period.
Keep the legal route, insurance route and loss evidence distinct.
Responsibility or entitlement
The cause of action and defendant determine the civil analysis.
Insurance and benefits
LAT, LTD and workplace systems may have separate time rules.
Loss and next decision
Proceedings may need to be issued and served to protect rights.
Build the record from sources another person can check.
Event and knowledge chronology.
Medical evidence about onset and capacity.
Identity of every potential defendant.
Notices, denials and delivery records.
Protect the next deadline without forcing an early conclusion.
Use the earliest supportable trigger as the working date until legal analysis says otherwise.3
Discoverability can be argued, but it should not be the filing plan.
How a personal injury lawyer may use this information.
General information explains the framework. Legal advice should connect that framework to the event, the people and insurers involved, the available records and the deadlines in the individual claim.
- Identify every timing regime
- Calculate conservative dates
- Preserve discoverability facts
- Issue proceedings when required
Not every file requires every step or legal representation. The work should respond to the actual dispute, evidence gap or decision that is approaching.
Sources and legal references
These official sources provide the legal and procedural foundation for this page. Their current wording and the facts of the claim control.
View 3 sources
- Ontario — Limitations Act, 2002
Ontario's basic limitation and discoverability framework.
Back to footnote ↑ - Ontario — Rules of Civil Procedure
Procedure for pleadings, discovery, experts, settlement approval and trial.
Back to footnote ↑ - Ontario — Courts of Justice Act
Ontario court jurisdiction and civil-justice framework.
Back to footnote ↑