Can family members claim damages if a relative is seriously injured in Ontario?

Yes. The Family Law Act gives certain close family members of a seriously injured person - such as a spouse, parent, child, or sibling - the right to bring their own separate claim for damages when the injury was caused by someone else's fault, alongside the injured person's own lawsuit. These claims typically cover things like the loss of the injured person's guidance, care, and companionship, and reasonable expenses the family member incurred for the injured person's benefit, such as travel costs to visit them in hospital or time spent providing care.

This is described as a derivative claim because it depends entirely on proving the underlying injury was someone else's fault; if the main claim fails, the family member's claim generally fails with it. It is a distinct legal claim from the injured person's own damages, though it is almost always pursued in the same lawsuit rather than filed separately later, since the facts and evidence overlap so heavily. There is no fixed amount for these claims - the court considers the specific relationship and the real impact the injury had on that family member's life, so documenting how the relationship and household changed is valuable evidence.