An Ontario tribunal has dismissed a claimant's bid for accident benefits - including income replacement and attendant care - after he filed no submissions at all.
The dispute began with an automobile accident on January 31, 2023. The claimant sought statutory accident benefits under Ontario's Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, and Security National Insurance Company denied them. He applied to the Licence Appeal Tribunal, putting several benefits in play: an income replacement benefit of $400.00 per week from February 7, 2023, attendant care benefits of $2,344.86 per month from April 26, 2024, $338.50 to replace eyeglasses, a special award under section 10 of Regulation 664, and interest.
The preliminary issue set for the written hearing was whether the claimant was barred from pursuing attendant care benefits after failing to attend an insurer's examination more than once under section 44 of the Schedule. That question was never reached.
After a case conference, the Tribunal ordered the matter to a written hearing in a report released July 28, 2025, and scheduled the hearing for January 30, 2026. Notice went to the parties by email, including the claimant's personal address, on August 27, 2025. On October 27, 2025, the claimant's representative filed a form removing himself from the file. The Tribunal followed up two days later, asking for updated contact details and re-attaching the hearing notice. The claimant replied on October 30, 2025 with a new phone number - and then went silent.
His written submissions were due December 31, 2025. None arrived. The insurer filed its submissions on January 16, 2026. The Tribunal heard nothing further from the claimant.
Because the claimant had never filed a notice of withdrawal, Vice-Chair Tyler Moore kept the file open and proceeded under section 7(2) of the Statutory Powers Procedure Act. He found the claimant had received notice of the written hearing, and that the onus of proving entitlement to every benefit in dispute rested with the claimant. With no submissions and no evidence on the record, that burden went unmet. As the vice-chair put it, "the applicant has not met his evidentiary burden."
No motion had been filed to extend the submission deadline. The application was dismissed in full - benefits, award and interest alike. The decision was released July 3, 2026.
For insurers and claims professionals, the decision is a clean illustration of where the burden sits. Even sizeable, open-ended claims - income replacement and attendant care running for years - collapse when a claimant puts nothing before the Tribunal. The removal of a representative did not pause the timelines, and the matter proceeded to a decision on the record that existed.
