Ontario Accident Benefits: Tort Awards and LAT Decisions Explained

Here’s how SABS and tort interact under Ontario’s accident benefits, and what a LAT ruling means Most people involved in a car accident in Ontario assume they face a single insurance claim. In reality, the system runs on two separate tracks; first is Ontario’s accident benefits, and the other is a civil lawsuit against whoever caused the crash. Ontario’s accident benefits system is a no-fault arrangement, where an insurer pays out regardless of who caused the collision, and payments begin right away. The legal framework comes from the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS), made under the provincial Insurance Act. Under this framework, anyone involved in a motor vehicle accident in the province, whether a driver, passenger, or pedestrian, is eligible for accident benefits in Ontario. This means that fault has no bearing on one’s eligibility for such benefits. Under the SABS, the amount of coverage depends on how the injury is classified: Learn more about the accident benefits in Ontario with this video: Check out Canadian Lawyer’s Special Report on Canada’s Best Personal Injury Law Firms for a list of the country’s leading personal injury boutiques and firms. Effective July 1, 2026, Ontario Regulation 383/24 amended the SABS , wherein only three benefits are now mandatory in every auto insurance policy: The other benefits are now optional coverage , such as income replacement benefits, non-earner benefits, caregiver benefits, housekeeping support, and death and funeral benefits. Whether an insured has them now depends entirely on the specific policy. Yes, as held in Cadieux v. Cloutier , 2018 ONCA 903 , that accident benefits and tort damages “are independent of one another.” Both claims can run at the same time, and for seriously injured claimants, that is usually the right approach. The coverage of accident benefits in Ontario provides immediate financial support. On the other hand, a tort claim against the at-fault driver’s insurer addresses what the SABS was not designed to fully cover, such as: Suing for pain and suffering requires the injury to have caused a permanent, serious impairment of an important physical, mental, or psychological function, as set out in s. 267.5 of the Insurance Act . Even then, a statutory deductible applies to general damages. For 2026, that deductible sits at approximately $47,913, indexed annually at a 2.4 percent rate by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario ( FSRA ). If the jury’s general damages award exceeds approximately $159,709, the deductible is waived entirely. Section 267.8 of the Insurance Act prevents double recovery. As such, accident benefits received before trial must be deducted from the corresponding heads of tort damages . The question of exactly how that deduction is calculated took Ontario courts decades to resolve. Under the old “apples to apples” or strict matching method from Bannon v. McNeely , 1998 CanLII 4486 (ON CA), a specific benefit had to be matched against an identical head of tort damages before any deduction was made. A five-judge panel of the Ontario Court of Appeal ended that approach in Cadieux , replacing it with the silo method. Under the silo approach, benefits fall into three broad statutory categories. Deductions are made within those categories only: However, no cross-silo deduction is permitted. In Kolapully v. Myles , 2024 ONCA 350 , the court held that non-earner benefits belong in Silo 1. In this case, Shoba Kolapully had received approximately $95,000 in non-earner benefits. Therefore, that amount was deductible from her $200,000 tort award for past income loss, reducing her net recovery on that head to approximately $105,000. Here’s more about the changes with the SABS effective July 1, 2026: Head over to Canadian Lawyer’s Events page for more in-person lawyer conferences and activities to get insights from legal professionals