Personal Injury
Motor vehicle accidents
Car, motorcycle, cyclist, and pedestrian collisions — both the accident benefits claim and the tort claim against the at-fault driver.
A collision in Ontario opens two separate claims. Your accident benefits claim is made against your own insurer regardless of fault and funds treatment, income replacement, and care. A tort claim against the at-fault driver compensates pain and suffering and losses that benefits do not cover.
Both are pursued from this office, so the medical evidence gathered for one supports the other rather than contradicting it.
The first two weeks
Report the collision to your insurer within seven days, see your family doctor even if symptoms feel manageable, and keep every receipt. Photographs of the vehicles and the scene, the police report number, and the other driver's insurance details are the evidence that later becomes difficult to reconstruct.
The verbal threshold and the deductible
To recover for pain and suffering after a motor vehicle accident, Ontario requires that the injury be a permanent, serious impairment of an important physical, mental, or psychological function. A statutory deductible also applies to awards below a set amount. Both are reasons the medical documentation you build in the first year matters so much.
Dealing with insurer requests
Recorded statements, broad medical authorisations, and early settlement offers often arrive before anyone knows the full extent of an injury. You are entitled to have those requests reviewed before you respond, and doing so costs you nothing here.
Pedestrian accidents
A pedestrian struck by a vehicle is treated the same way in law as anyone else injured in a motor vehicle accident: accident benefits are generally available through your own policy, a household policy, or the insurer of the vehicle involved, and a tort claim may be brought against the driver. Because pedestrian injuries are frequently serious, the priority is securing treatment funding quickly while the police report, scene evidence, and any camera footage are preserved.
Questions clients ask
Should I give the other driver's insurer a recorded statement?
Not before speaking with a lawyer. You have obligations to your own insurer, but statements to the other side are frequently used to narrow a claim later. It is worth a short call before you respond.
What if I was partly at fault?
Ontario applies contributory negligence, so a claim is reduced by your share of responsibility rather than eliminated. Accident benefits are also available regardless of fault.
This page is general information about Ontario law, not legal advice for your situation. Book a consultation for advice on your own matter.
Consultation
Find out where your claim stands.
A short, confidential conversation is usually enough to tell you whether there is a claim, what the deadlines are, and what the next step would cost you.
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- 289-803-2803
- 400 Applewood CrescentSuite 100Vaughan, Ontario, L4K 0C3
- Monday – Friday | 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. In-person meetings: by appointment