Car insurance claims in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia keeps the ordinary tort action and layers three things on top of it, and describing the province without all four elements misstates it. Every contract evidenced by a motor vehicle liability policy must insure, in respect of any one accident, to a limit of at least $500,000, exclusive of interest and costs, against liability for bodily injury, death and loss of or damage to property (Insurance Act, s. 125(1)). That is a single combined limit covering injury and property together — not the three-number structure used south of the border. The same policy must carry uninsured and unidentified motorist coverage, capped at that same $500,000 per accident and reduced to the lesser limit where the crash happens outside the province; note the asymmetry, though, because bodily injury is covered against both uninsured and unidentified vehicles while damage to your own car is covered only against an identified uninsured owner or driver (N.S. Reg. 94/96, ss. 3, 4).

The second layer is the minor-injury cap. For accidents on or after 28 April 2010, damages for non-monetary loss are limited by regulation where the injury is a «minor injury», which the Act defines narrowly as a sprain, a strain or a whiplash-associated disorder injury that does not result in a serious impairment (s. 113E). A judge decides whether an injury is minor, on a pre-trial motion if the parties consent, and that determination binds the parties at trial. Three mechanics matter in practice: the onus is on the claimant to show the injury is not minor, each injury is assessed separately, and where a claimant has both minor and non-minor injuries the cap still swallows the whole award if the non-minor injuries assessed on their own would not have exceeded the cap. The figure in the regulation is $7,500, but that is a 2010 base, not a current amount: it is increased every 1 January by the Nova Scotia all-items Consumer Price Index, never reduced, fixed by the calendar year in which the accident happened, and published each year by the Superintendent of Insurance by 31 January. Income loss recovered in tort is net rather than gross — income and payroll taxes, employment insurance, union or professional dues and pension contributions including CPP all come off, for past loss and for future earning capacity alike (N.S. Reg. 182/2003, s. 2(1)).

The third layer is direct compensation for property damage, and it changes who you claim from. Where your car or its contents are damaged by the use or operation of another automobile in the province, and at least one other automobile involved is insured by a licensed insurer, you recover for the damage and for loss of use from your own insurer as though you were a third party, based on your insurer’s insured’s degree of fault under the Fault Determination Regulations — and you have no right of action against any other person involved for that damage or loss of use. If you disagree with the fault percentage or with the settlement offered, you sue your own insurer (s. 138A). The fourth layer is Section B, the compulsory first-party accident benefits, payable without reference to fault: up to $50,000 per person for reasonable medical, surgical, dental, chiropractic, hospital, nursing and ambulance expenses incurred within four years of the accident; a weekly income payment of the lesser of $250 or 80 percent of gross weekly income net of other income replacement, for up to 104 weeks and longer if the injury continuously prevents any suitable occupation, provided the inability arose within 30 days of the accident and lasted at least seven days; $100 a week for someone incapacitated from household duties; death benefits of $25,000 for the head of the household, $25,000 for the spouse of the head of the household and $5,000 in the third category, increased by $1,000 for each survivor after the first, where death ensues within 180 days; and funeral expenses up to $2,500.

The deadlines are the part most often got wrong, because Nova Scotia runs several at once. On the tort claim, a proceeding may not be brought after the earlier of two years from the day the claim is discovered and fifteen years from the act or omission — and «discovered» is defined by a four-part test, the last limb of which is knowing that the loss is sufficiently serious to warrant a proceeding (Limitation of Actions Act, s. 8). For personal-injury claims only, a court may disallow a limitation defence where it appears just on a balance of hardship, but not if the claim is brought more than two years after the period expired (s. 12). On the policy, an action against the insurer for indemnity must be brought within two years after the insured’s liability is established by a court, and an action for damage to the automobile within two years from when the loss was sustained (mandatory condition 6(3)) — neither runs from the accident. On the property side the insured must give prompt written notice and deliver a statutory declaration within 90 days of the loss, and the insurer must pay what it owes within 60 days of receiving proof of loss, or within 15 days of an appraisal award (mandatory conditions 4 and 6(1)). On the Section B side the clocks are shorter at the front and faster at the back: written notice of claim to the insurer’s head office in the province within 30 days of the accident, proof of claim within 90 days — each softened by «or as soon as practicable thereafter» — and the insurer must pay within 30 days of receiving proof of claim, with recurring income benefits payable within each 30-day period on proof of continuing disability.

Shared fault reduces a Nova Scotia award and never defeats it. Where by the fault of two or more persons damage or loss is caused to one or more of them, the liability to make good the damage or loss is in proportion to the degree in which each person was at fault, and where, having regard to all the circumstances, it is not possible to establish different degrees of fault, the liability is apportioned equally (Contributory Negligence Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 95, s. 3(1)). Nothing in that section renders anyone liable for damage to which their fault has not contributed (s. 3(2)). There is no percentage at which a claim is barred: a driver found largely at fault still recovers the remainder, reduced by their own share. The court determines the degree to which each person was at fault (s. 4), and the amount of the loss, the fault and the degrees of fault are all questions of fact (s. 5). One Nova Scotia-specific sting is in the costs: where damages are occasioned by the fault of more than one party, the court has power to direct that the plaintiff bear some portion of the costs if the circumstances render it just (s. 6) — a discretion, not the automatic proportionality New Brunswick applies next door. The Act reaches no cause of action existing before 14 April 1954 (s. 2). Apportionment and the minor-injury cap are separate steps in that order: apportion under c. 95, then cap the non-pecuniary component.

Four things are deliberately absent from this row. The minor-injury cap amount for the relevant accident year, which only the Superintendent’s annual publication fixes and which must not be indexed by hand from the 2010 base, has not yet been verified against a primary text and is not stated here. Nova Scotia’s accident-reporting duty and its dollar threshold under the Motor Vehicle Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 293, ss. 97–98, were read only in a consolidation whose own footer reads 1 May 2016 and whose amendment list stops at 2015, c. 46, so neither the duty nor the threshold has yet been verified against a current primary text and neither is stated here. The Superintendent of Insurance’s complaint route has not yet been verified against a primary source and is not stated here, although the office’s own programme page — which served only a JavaScript shell when this row was researched and now serves readable content — lists the Superintendent’s bulletins and notices. And whether inherent diminished value is recoverable has not yet been verified against a primary text and is not stated here; the question is structurally unusual in Nova Scotia, because vehicle damage is a direct-compensation claim against your own insurer with no action against the other driver, so it would run through the policy and the Fault Determination Regulations rather than through tort.