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An adult that has been injured in an accident has 2 years in which to file a claim. The first day of that 2-year period can be one of two possible dates. It could be the date for the discovery that the victim does indeed have a claim. Alternatively, it could be the day when a reasonable person would have realized the wisdom behind filing a claim.
Still, Ontario’s Limitations Act does not provide victims with an unlimited amount of time in which to discover the existence of a collision-caused injury. In fact, an adult has no more than 15 years in which to make that discovery.
Exceptions noted in Limitations Act:
One exception pertains to any victim of a sexual assault. All such victims have an unlimited amount of time in which to seek compensation for any injuries. That compensation would cover the costs related to seeking treatment for a psychological or emotional problem.
Victims of sexual assault do not have to discover their psychological or emotional injuries within 15 years of the assault. Research has shown that such victims often fail to recognize the existence of such problems until 20 or 30 years beyond the date of the actual assault.
By the same token, the statute of limitations does not apply if a child has been the victim of an accident. A minor has the full limitation period in which to file a claim. That provides parents and caregivers with time in which to arrange for a given minor to get examined by a physician, once any suspicious symptom has been noted.
Still, it can be difficult for a grown child to file a claim with the help of an Injury Lawyer in Barrie, even if a doctor has diagnosed an existing problem. For that reason, such a child, or an adult that was injured as a child should seek out the help of an attorney. In addition, personal injury lawyers need to alert parents to the nature of any symptoms that a given son or daughter might exhibit over an extended period of time.
Details to include in an alert for parents
Such an alert would prove most useful, if a child’s injury had involved his or her head. The symptoms associated with traumatic brain injuries can get ignored, and passed-off as “typical for children.” Those symptoms include things like headaches, nausea and trouble sleeping.
Such symptoms might disappear eventually, but any one of them could give way to a more serious symptom. For instance, the minor might complain about dizziness. If a doctor has not been consulted previously, the family physician could have slight reason for linking the dizziness to the movement of the minor’s head at the time of the accident.