An Ontario tribunal barred a motor vehicle accident claimant's benefits application after her explanations for a seven-month notice delay collapsed under scrutiny.
The Licence Appeal Tribunal ruled on August 26, 2026 that the applicant is statute-barred from proceeding with her statutory accident benefits claim against The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, finding she failed to meet the notice deadline under section 32(1) of the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule and could not provide a reasonable explanation for the delay under section 34.
The applicant was injured in a motor vehicle accident on August 22, 2023. Dominion first learned of her intention to claim accident benefits on April 9, 2024, more than seven months later, when her treatment provider submitted a treatment confirmation form. She signed her application for benefits on March 11, 2024, and it reached Dominion the following month.
Her explanations for the gap included a belief her injuries would resolve on their own, the trauma of the crash and its aftermath, ongoing treatment with her family physician, and, as a newcomer to Canada with a language barrier, not understanding her notice obligations.
Dominion pointed to adjuster call notes showing the applicant admitted she was unaware of any duty to report the accident, and that her lawyer had told her to report it roughly two months before she did. A second call revealed the applicant had an open accident benefits claim with a different insurer stemming from a September 2022 accident, and that her own counsel had advised her to wait until that claim settled before notifying Dominion. That earlier claim closed about a month before she gave Dominion notice.
The tribunal found this history undercut the applicant's newcomer and language-barrier explanations. Having already navigated an accident benefits claim with legal representation, the applicant was found capable of handling insurance matters despite those circumstances. Her family physician's clinical notes from November 2023 referencing a "remote MVA" and discussions about legal counsel further showed she knew benefits were available well before she gave notice.
The trauma explanation fell short too. The tribunal found no medical evidence linking any psychological impact to the delay, and found her persistent physical and psychological symptoms inconsistent with a stated belief that her injuries would simply resolve.
On prejudice, the tribunal accepted that the delay hampered Dominion's ability to distinguish injuries from the subject accident from those tied to the 2022 collision, a task complicated further by the applicant's failure to produce her earlier claim file despite a tribunal order to do so.
Weighing that prejudice against the hardship to the applicant, the tribunal found in Dominion's favour, ruling the applicant is barred under section 55(1) of the Schedule from proceeding with her application.
