Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog
One of the most common questions which personal injury clients want to know is how long their case will take to settle.
I, Brian Goldfinger, would love to give a one size fits all answer to this question because that would make my job as a personal injury lawyer a much easier one. Unfortunately, there isn’t a one size fits all answer to such a question.
Some cases take longer to settle. Some cases take more time.
Let’s take a look at a recent decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice which provides some clues as to why cases might take more long to settle.
Here is the case of Vaillancourt v. R.K. Mooney Insurance Brokers Ltd., 2025 ONSC 6761 (CanLII). These are in fact, two cases in one, which are to be tried together, or at the same time, such as the Trial Judge best sees fit.
These two actions arise out of a single vehicle accident that occurred on July 26, 2017 on a municipal road in Barrie, Ontario. The Plaintiff, Darrin Vaillancourt, was riding his motorcycle in the rain. When he applied his brakes, his rear wheel locked, causing him to lose control and be thrown onto the road. As a result, the Plaintiff suffered catastrophic injuries. The two actions are currently scheduled for a five week non-jury trial before me in September 2026. So, doing the math, that shows that from the date of the accident (July 26, 2017), to the date of trial (Sept 1, 2026); 9 years, 1 month and 15 days would have passed. 
Why has so much time passed from the date of the accident (July 26, 2017) until the date of trial (Sept 1, 2026)? Here are indicators which we can deduce from the case.
- It’s a complicated case. It’s two cases in one, which arise from the same car accident. With two cases there are two timelines, multiple parties, multiple lawyers, more than one case worth of documents; more discoveries. It gets messy and complicated really quickly.
- It does not appear to be an easy case on any issue. There are lots of issues which appear to be in dispute. In fact, The Defendant the City of Barrie brought a motion for summary judgment seeking dismissal of the Plaintiff’s tort action on the ground that the Plaintiff failed to comply with the 10-day notice period in s. 44(10) of the Municipal Act, 2001, and the conditions of s. 44(12) of the Act are not met. This means that the Defendant City of Barrie is confident that despite years of litigation, they can have the Plaintiff’s case kicked out of Court before it gets to trial based on a failed notice requirement under the Municipal Act. From a litigation strategy perspective, it’s a free kick at the can to have the Plaintiff’s case stopped in its tracks. If the Defendant loses its summary judgment motion, it will have to pay some costs. But the reward far outweighs the risk given that if the Defendant wins on summary judgment, they win the case completely.
- The Plaintiff’s injuries were deemed catastrophic. That means that they meet a medico legal test under the SABS/Insurance Act. In layman’s terms, when injuries are deemed catastrophic, they are the most serious you can get for a car accident case. They are life altering injuries which will have a devastating impact for the Plaintiff and his family moving forward. These injuries will not go away with some treatment or medication. When injuries are that serious, the damage awards will reflect it. This means that a Plaintiff will not consider nuisance value to get the claim resolved because the injuries are so serious. Insurers and self insured Defendants don’t throw money around lightly.
Let’s now assume a complete different fact pattern.
Dog bite case involving a single Plaintiff and a single Defendant. Insurance coverage is not an issue. Damages are not catastrophic and have healed within 8 months following the dog attack. Neither liability nor causation are issues either. The only item in dispute is the quantification of damages. The Plaintiff’s figures are high. The Defendant’s assessment of damages is lower. Eventually, both parties compromise and agree to a figure. The Defendant feels like they are paying too much and the Plaintiff feels like they are accepting too little. Everyone is pleasantly unhappy such that the case settles. Because this was a relatively uncomplicated case, with only 2 parties; with few legal issues in dispute other than damages; and there were no insurance coverage issues; then the case will be able to settle in a relatively short period of time. In fact, personal injury lawyer Brian Goldfinger has seen such cases settle in as little as 6 months time to around 1 year.
But. And this is a big but. Every case is different. And that’s a common theme with the practice of personal injury law. Cases can be similar, but they are never the same. Different insurance companies have different approaches to litigation. And even within the same insurance company, different insurance adjusters take different approaches to their files. No two insurance adjusters are alike even though they might be working for the same company and under the same roof with the same training!
So, to circle back to the opening question which personal injury lawyer Brian Goldfinger commonly hears from clients “how long will it take for my case to settle”. The answer to that question is “it depends”. My hope is that we’ve helped to shed some light on the factors which to in to analyzing a case; and why some cases take a long time to settle or find their way to trial; while others take a shorter period of time.
What’s important for a Plaintiff to understand is that these factors are entirely outside of their control. A Plaintiff has zero control in terms of the number of parties who might be responsible for their accident; and has zero control over the legal factors which might be at play when litigating a personal injury case. A personal injury lawyer knows that their client doesn’t want to be caught up in this mess to begin with. A good personal injury lawyer will do their very best to get the case resolved for as much as possible when the time is right.
