The value of an Ontario injury claim depends on whether the injury is permanent, its effect on earning capacity, the cost of care over a lifetime, and the statutory deductible. None of those can be assessed reliably in the first weeks after an injury.
The four things that actually decide it
Whether the injury clears the statutory threshold. What it does to your ability to earn, now and for the rest of your working life. What care, treatment and equipment will cost over time. And the statutory reduction applied to pain and suffering.
Only the last of those is arithmetic. The other three are evidence, and evidence takes months to develop.
Why the same injury produces different outcomes
Two people with identical injuries can have very different claims. A back injury that ends a trades career is a different case from the same injury in someone who works at a desk and returns in six weeks.
The injury is the starting point. What it costs you is the claim.
What a quoted figure really tells you
A specific number offered at a first meeting is not an assessment, because no assessment is possible yet. It is a sales technique, and it usually sets an expectation that has to be walked back later.
What you should get instead is an honest description of what is arguable, what is not, and what evidence would move it.
Deadlines that apply to you
These are the dates that end claims. Check them first.
To recover for pain and suffering after a motor vehicle collision, the injury must have caused death or a permanent serious impairment of an important physical, mental or psychological function.
Insurance Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. I.8, s. 267.5(5)
Questions we get every week
Not responsibly, not before the medical evidence exists. What we can do is tell you what determines the range and what would move it.
Because it wins retainers. It also produces disappointed clients when the real assessment arrives.
Generally once the medical picture stabilises, which is months in a simple case and considerably longer where the injury is serious.
Where this applies
Car Accidents
After a car accident in Ontario you usually have two separate claims running at the same time: accident benefits from your own insurer regardless of who caused the crash, and a claim against the driver at fault.
Read moreCatastrophic Injury
In Ontario, a catastrophic impairment designation raises the combined medical, rehabilitation and attendant care limit from $65,000 to $1,000,000 and removes the time limit.
Read moreTraumatic Brain Injury
A traumatic brain injury can be severe and permanent while every scan comes back normal.
Read more