After a car accident, you might want to seek out financial compensation for your injuries. You can calculate what your insurance claim might be worth using PainWorth.
That said, to have a chance of getting financial compensation, you must file your legal claim within a specific time period, or your right to compensation might be permanently lost.
In this post, we’ll explain how long you have to file an injury claim in New Brunswick so that you do not miss out on your right to an insurance settlement.
If your car accident happens in New Brunswick, you are only eligible to file a legal action for a 2-year period after your accident occurs. This is essentially the “time limit” on your ability to take legal action.
This time limit is also known as a “limitation period” (and is sometimes also called a statute of limitations).
Generally, when pursuing a car accident or personal injury claim in New Brunswick you have 2 years from the day the accident occurred or was “discovered,” to file your personal injury claim. This general rule can be found in paragraph 5(1)(a) of New Brunswick’s Limitations of Actions Act.
The general limitation period is subject to some exceptions and additional rules that vary from province to province. Some of the common exceptions and additional rules are covered below.
Discovery refers to the date that you became aware that you were injured in an accident.
When pursuing a personal injury claim in New Brunswick, you have 2 years from the day the accident was “discovered” to file your accident claim.
For most claims, “discovery” occurs on the day the car accident happened.
However, depending on the specific circumstances of your claim, this date could be delayed.
For example, it may be the case that you were not aware that you had a legal claim, and the limitation period would begin running at the date of this “discovery.”
In New Brunswick, if you are younger than 19 years old when the car accident occurs, your 2-yeartime limit does not begin until you reach the age of majority.
Likewise, if you are unable to bring a claim because of your physical, mental or psychological condition, you may be provided with an exemption from the two-year limitation period.
There are additional rules that must be followed depending on who you are suing.
In some cases, the law requires you to provide formal notice to the party in which you want to bring the action against before you can file a valid lawsuit. This is what is referred to as “notice of intended action.”
The Ultimate Limitation Period is the absolute longest amount of time you have to bring a claim, even if you were exempt from the general limitation period. In New Brunswick, the Ultimate Limitation Period is 15 years from the day that the accident occurred.
The ultimate limitation period applies even if you did not discover that you had a claim until much later.
If you’ve missed the time limit to sue for your personal injury claim you should still speak to a lawyer immediately.
Your claim is not automatically lost. In some cases, you will be able to salvage your legal claim by making a court motion.
Even if the applicable limitation period for your injury claim has expired, you may be allowed to advance your personal injury claim if there are grounds to do so.
In New Brunswick, the court will consider the hardships you have experienced, the strength of your case and if there are any alternative remedies available to you.
That said, the possibility of having your limitation period (or “statute of limitations”) extended is only available to personal injury claims, and you must be within 2-years after the expiry of the relevant limitation period of your case.
The extension does not apply to the 15-year Ultimate Limitation Period.
