If you’re thinking about bringing an injury claim, it’s important to speak with an injury lawyer as soon as possible because of something called limitation periods. Limitation periods are time limits that restrict when legal proceedings may be started. In Nova Scotia, they’re set by a piece of legislation called the Limitation of Actions Act. Once a limitation period has expired, the claim will become what’s called statute barred. If a claim has started after this expiration, there’s a very good chance that the court will dismiss it even if it may have a lot of merit otherwise.
While there are a lot of exceptions and nuances, in Nova Scotia, injured people generally have two years to bring a claim. They have a two-year limitation period, meaning that after two years, you will have lost your right to sue or seek compensation for your injuries. This applies to injury claims stemming from car accidents, to slip and falls, to medical malpractice. Again, there are some important exceptions to this that you may want to consult with a lawyer about if you’re beyond your limitation period. One important thing to know is that discoverability applies to limitation periods, something called the discoverability principle. This means that the clock does not start to tick until you know or you should know that you have a potential claim. If you don’t know that you’ve been injured through someone’s negligence until years later, then you likely won’t be held to a two-year limitation limit. This is often the case in medical malpractice claims, for example, where negligence or an injury may not become knowable until many years after treatment. But if you know on the date of the wrong that you’ve been injured by that wrong, then that’s when the clock starts ticking. A common example of this is a rear-end collision. If you’ve been rear-ended and you know you’ve been injured, then you have two years from that date to file an action.
Another important exception to know about is for survivors of sexual abuse. Survivors of abuse often wait decades before coming forward. They may not be able to speak about it sooner, and in Nova Scotia, this has been recognized, and the law is such that there is no limitation period for this type of wrong. Survivors of sexual abuse can bring a claim forward whenever they’re ready.
