{"id":30758,"date":"2024-04-08T18:37:18","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T18:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wagners1.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/nova-scotia-fatal-injury-act\/"},"modified":"2024-04-08T18:37:18","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T18:37:18","slug":"nova-scotia-fatal-injury-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/blog\/nova-scotia-fatal-injury-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Rationale for Revising Nova Scotia's Fatal Injuries Act"},"content":{"rendered":"\nNova Scotia enforces a stringent limitation period for claims involving fatal injuries. Among all ten provinces and three territories in Canada, only Yukon and Nova Scotia jurisdictions have a limitation period of 12 months for fatal injuries.\n\nAll other jurisdictions allow fatal injury claims to be filed within two years from the time a deceased passed away. Further, in Quebec, a plaintiff has three years to file a fatal injury claim.\n\nThis article draws attention to Nova Scotia\u2019s stringent limitation period for fatal <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/blog\/the-important-steps-in-proceeding-with-a-personal-injury-claim-in-nova-scotia\/\" title=\"The Important Steps in Proceeding with a Personal Injury Claim in Nova Scotia\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"1047833\">injury claims<\/a> and calls for its amendment to align it with other jurisdictions in Canada and contemporary legal standards.\n\nIn the case of <i>MacLean v. MacDonald, <\/i>NSCA 30 (2002), Nova Scotia\u2019s Court of Appeal highlighted the history of claims involving fatal injuries in this region. In 1846, the law that prevented the family of a deceased individual from taking legal action in a tort was considered \u201cunsatisfactory\u201d and \u201csignificantly amended\u201d by England\u2019s legislature.\n\nDuring this period, the Canadian common law followed suit.\n\nIn 1873, Nova Scotia\u2019s legislature codified this change in statute by enacting the <i>Fatal Injuries Act<\/i>. The <i>Fatal Injuries Act <\/i>provides a clear mechanism for legal action for the benefit of the deceased\u2019s immediate family members.\n\n<strong>Justification for Limitation Statutes<\/strong>\n\nIn\u00a0<i>M. (K.) v. M. (H.), <\/i>[1992] 3 S.C.R. 6<i>,<\/i>\u00a0Canada\u2019s Supreme Court provided three general justifications for limitation statutes. First, after a specified period, a defender should be certain that the plaintiff won\u2019t pursue legal action against them. Second, all injury claims must be filed before the related evidence becomes stale.\n\nThird, complainants are expected to act diligently and avoid what the court referred to as \u201csleeping on their rights.\u201d However, the Supreme Court still recognized that these three rationales promote the defendant\u2019s interests, and there should be fairness to the plaintiff. This aim was reflected in the case\u00a0<i>Murphy v. Welsh, <\/i>[1993] 2 S.C.R. 1069.\n\nAdditionally, in\u00a0<i>Novak v. Bond, <\/i>[1999] 1 S.C.R. 808, Canada\u2019s Supreme Court emphasized that various legislatures have implemented amendments to \u201cmodernize\u201d their statutes of limitations. Thus, there has been attention towards ensuring limitation periods also consider the interests of the plaintiff instead of focusing solely on the defendant.\n\nGenerally, contemporary statutes balance the three conventional justifications for limitations with the need to treat the plaintiffs fairly. This evolution has led to statutes of limitations that reflect a fourth justification: they account for the claimant\u2019s circumstances as analyzed through an objective\/subjective lens. Unfortunately, Nova Scotia\u2019s fatal <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/personal-injury-lawyer-in-yarmouth\/\" title=\"Personal Injury Lawyer in Yarmouth\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"1045875\">injury law<\/a> is lagging behind. The current 12-month period doesn\u2019t appropriately consider the claimant\u2019s circumstances.\n\n<strong>The Need for Fatal Injury Act Amendment<\/strong>\n\nAll fatal injury claims are usually filed by a surviving member of the deceased\u2019s family on behalf of the estate. As the limitations period starts, the family members are often grieving the loss of a loved one. Furthermore, they may be making funeral arrangements, managing estate affairs, and handling various administrative tasks that could interfere with their ability to file a legal action against the defendant within the recommended period.\n\nAccording to the\u00a0<i>Limitations of Actions Act<\/i>\u00a0in Nova Scotia, personal injury claims and most civil claims have a limitation period of two years from the date the claim is discovered. Considering the potential overlap of the cases involving personal injuries and fatal injuries, the difference in their limitation period is quite striking.\n\nThe unfairness and arbitrariness of the difference in the two limitation periods can be illustrated with an example. Suppose one passenger sustained minor injuries and another passenger died in the same car accident. In this case, applying the certainty, evidentiary, and diligence rationales, you would expect the two plaintiffs to have the same limitation period.\n\nIn both cases, the defendant ) has an equal interest in knowing if the plaintiff is pursuing legal action, ensuring the evidence is preserved, and encouraging the plaintiff to bring the action within a reasonable amount of time. Applying the fourth rationale that accounts for the specific circumstances of the claimant (the party filing the legal action), you would expect the fatal injury case to have at least the same limitation period as the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/blog\/anxiety-after-car-accident-how-to-cope\/\" title=\"Anxiety after Car Accident \u2013 How to Cope\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"1044333\">personal injury case<\/a> After all, the family members bringing the fatal injury claim may be grieving. However, this isn\u2019t the case in Nova Scotia.\n\nGiven this, Nova Scotia\u2019s fatal <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/personal-injury-lawyer-in-glace-bay\/\" title=\"Personal Injury Lawyer in Glace Bay\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"1044466\">injury law<\/a> should be reevaluated. Its punitive limitation period is inconsistent with the legal principles set out in the\u00a0<i>Novak v. Bond\u00a0<\/i>by Canada\u2019s Supreme Court. Furthermore, the Fatal Injury Act is out of step with other statutes of limitation across Canada. It fails to account for the circumstances of the grieving family members of the deceased person. Thus, it imposes undue stress and burden on Canadians seeking redress for fatal injuries sustained by their loved ones.\n\nNova Scotia legislature should consider extending the limitation period for fatal injury claims to two years. This would demonstrate the commitment to balance the plaintiff\u2019s interests with those of the defendant and reflect the aim of a fair and just legal system\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Note: This article was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law360.ca\/ca\/articles\/1815911\/case-for-amending-nova-scotia-s-fatal-injuries-act-sean-davidson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Law360<\/a> <\/i><i>Canada, a publication by Lexis Nexis<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nova Scotia enforces a stringent limitation period for claims involving fatal injuries. Among all ten provinces and three territories in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rationale for Revising Nova Scotia&#039;s Fatal Injuries Act - Wagners Personal Injury Lawyers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wagners.co\/es\/blog\/nova-scotia-fatal-injury-act\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rationale for Revising Nova Scotia&#039;s Fatal Injuries Act - Wagners Personal Injury Lawyers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nova Scotia enforces a stringent limitation period for claims involving fatal injuries. 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