Car insurance claims in Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is the one province in this group that lets a driver choose the system, and the choice has to be made before anything happens. The default is no-fault: under s. 40.1 of The Automobile Accident Insurance Act, «no person has any right of action respecting, arising out of or stemming from bodily injuries caused by a motor vehicle arising out of an accident», and no such action «lies or may be commenced in any court». Section 40.2(1) then offers the alternative — a Saskatchewan resident may file a written tort election declaring an intention to take Part II coverage, «waive the resident’s right to obtain benefits pursuant to Part II.1 or Part VIII», and «elect to bring an action for loss or damage for bodily injury». Three limits define it. The election is open only to Saskatchewan residents. It «applies only with respect to accidents that occur after the date the insurer receives» it (s. 40.2(3)), so it cannot be made after a crash. And it must be in the insurer’s own form, made by the person to be bound, and actually received — posting is not filing (s. 40.3(1), (2), (5), (6)). The election does not reach occupants of a stolen vehicle (s. 40.2(6)), and motorcycle owners have a separate, mutually exclusive election of their own (s. 35.12).

In the default stream, the deadlines belong to a claims process rather than a courthouse. A claimant must apply for a benefit within two years of the accident, or within two years of the day a practitioner first observes symptoms of an injury that was not apparent immediately afterwards; a death claim runs two years from the death, and a claimant who was a minor has two years from turning eighteen (s. 164(1)–(3)). SGI «shall give every claimant a written decision respecting the claimant’s entitlement to benefits», together with written reasons and written notice of the right to mediate or appeal (s. 189). Mediation must be requested within ninety days of receiving that decision, and the parties then have thirty days to agree on a mediator (s. 190(2), (4)). An appeal goes to either the Court of King’s Bench or the Automobile Injury Appeal Commission within ninety days of the written decision, or ninety days from the mediator’s completion statement if mediation was requested — and choosing the court closes the commission (s. 191). Two specific decisions carry a longer route of one hundred and eighty days: benefits withheld pending a criminal charge (s. 107(4)) and a non-resident’s responsibility determination (s. 109(2)). From the court or the commission, a further appeal to the Court of Appeal needs leave, lies on a question of law only, and must be brought within thirty days (s. 194).

For property damage and for a claim in the elected tort stream, the general statutes apply. Liability is shared «in proportion to the degree in which each person was at fault», apportioned equally where different degrees cannot be established, and no one answers for loss their fault did not cause (Contributory Negligence Act, s. 2). A proceeding must be commenced within two years of discovery (Limitations Act, s. 5), with the four-limb discovery test in s. 6(1) — and a feature that catches claimants here more than elsewhere: the claimant «is presumed to have known of the matters mentioned in clauses (1)(a) to (d) on the day on which the act or omission on which the claim is based took place, unless the contrary is proved» (s. 6(2)). Fifteen years after the act or omission the claim is gone regardless (s. 7(1)), and a claim based on a death runs two years from the earlier of the discovery of the death and a court’s presumption of it (s. 7(4)).

Compulsory cover is expressed as an arithmetic rule rather than a round number: an owner’s certificate insures against liability for bodily injury, death and property damage, and the insurer’s liability is «the positive amount L, if any, calculated in accordance with the following formula: L = $200,000 – N, where N is the amount the insurer is obligated to pay pursuant to section 51.1» (s. 42(1), (2)) — two hundred thousand dollars combined per accident, net of the s. 51.1 obligation, and the same whether there is one claim or many (s. 42(3)). The sections answering uninsured and unidentified motorists are capped at the same «total amount of $200,000, exclusive of costs», with property claims taking priority to the extent of $10,000 (s. 59(2), (2.1)). At the scene, the person in charge of the vehicle must notify the other driver and the keeper of any other damaged property as soon as is practicable and give name, address, driver’s licence number, registration number and insurance particulars (Traffic Safety Act, s. 253(2)); a report to the nearest peace officer is required where the accident involved injury or death, an unregistered vehicle, an unidentified vehicle, a vehicle towed from the scene, or a driver apparently under the influence of alcohol or drugs (s. 253(3), (4)). There is no dollar threshold in that list, and none is stated here. Insurance in the province is written by Saskatchewan Government Insurance; the province’s financial-services regulator is the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority, and whether it takes complaints about Auto Fund claims has not been verified, so no complaint route is published. The date on which the no-fault default took effect, the mechanism of the uninsured-motorist sections 51.1, 54 and 55, whether any provision fixes a time for SGI to decide a claim, and whether diminished value is recoverable, have not yet been verified against a primary text and are not stated here.