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If a resident of Ontario gets injured in an accident, he or she has a limited time in which to file a lawsuit. Lawyers refer to that interval as the Limitation Period. It extends for a full 2 years.
Still, depending on the nature of the accident victim’s problem, the start date for that Limitation Period is not always clear. For those lawsuits directed at the person responsible for the accident, the start date seems rather obvious. Yet questions surround the start date of the Limitation Period, if the claimant filing the suit plans to sue an insurance company.
What could lead some accident victim to sue an insurance company?
Typically, victims that have chosen to pursue that action have been denied benefits. In a majority of such situations, that concerned the payments requested by someone with a long term disability policy. The request could also come from a disabled former employee, someone that worked at given company, before getting injured in an accident.
What course of action can such a person take, after learning about the denial?
That unfortunate claimant must choose between 2 courses of action. That individual could appeal the company’s decision. In fact, if the first appeal has been denied, the claimant can file a second or third appeal with the help of personal injury lawyer in Brantford.
The second course of action suggests a careful consideration of the limited amount of time available for filing a lawsuit. That alternate action dispenses with an appeal. and moves right on to a suing of the insurance company. To some people, that seems like a costly move, because it invites the necessity of paying court costs.
Why pursuit of the appeal process could prove even more costly?
As stated above, questions surround identification of the actual start date for the timeframe given to the claimant that plans to file a lawsuit. Insurance companies often make a habit of viewing the date of the first appeal as that particular start date. Hence, someone that has mounted multiple appeals could find that the introduced suit has come before the court “out of time.”
That means that it will go nowhere. It will be dismissed by the court. Indeed, an insurer can turn that sad possibility into what might seem like a certainty. An insurer can all but guarantee that transformation by using very specific language in the issued denial letters.
For instance, the first letter could spell out the issuance of a denial. The 2nd and 3rd letter might send the same message, but use more circumspect language. In that way, the insurance company would highlight the date of the first denial. Faced with the availability of such documents, the court might agree with the insurer.