Faced with a series of problems, most of which related to the preservation of evidence, legislators in Alberta chose to pass a Limitations Act. The government wanted to be fair to the defendants. Yet certain aspects of Alberta’s Limitations Act might cause someone to wonder whether or not the government has been fair to the plaintiffs/victims.
What sorts of problems caused those legislators to pass such an Act?
Problems caused by the loss of evidence and problems caused by witnesses’ fading memories. A demand for the updating of claims seemed like a logical way to solve such problems.
What was the main rule included in the Limitations Act?
A personal injury claim must be filed no more than 2 years after the claimant had known, or should have known that he or she had become aware of all 3 of the following:
• The existence of an injury
• The realization that the same injury had been caused by an accident
• The realization that the defendant’s conduct justified the filing of the claim.
No claim can be filed more than 10 years after the injury-causing event.
An exception to the Act’s rule
The limitation period for someone that was injured as a minor begins at the time when that same minor has reached the age of 18. The legal system does not give a minor the right to file a personal injury claim. In other words, an injured youth that has attained to the age of 18 has 2 years in which to file a personal injury claim, even with the help of personal injury lawyer in Medicine Hat.
How fair is the Limitations Act?
Is it really fair to give such a youth only a 2-year interval in which to file a claim? Suppose that the youth’s parents had never indicated to their son or daughter a sense that he or she had been injured. How would the same young person (now 18) have reason to suspect the existence of an accident-caused injury?
If the government wants to put a limit on the amount of time provided to an injured minor, once he or she reaches the age of 18, then it should make a point of alerting parents to the symptoms associated with accident-related injuries. For instance, parents need to learn more about identifying the signs of a concussion or a traumatic brain injury.
Otherwise, both the injured youth and the parents would be at the mercy of those that could help them to realize that a post-accident medical problem had been caused by a particular accident. The problem might not have become apparent until many years after the same accident. Moreover, a young adult might lack the ability to identify the incident that triggered a specific medical condition.