In Ontario, most claims must be started within two years of the day you discovered them. Miss it and the court will not hear you, however strong the case. The traps are the exceptions: a 10-day municipal notice, a 60-day notice for snow and ice, and clocks that start earlier than you think.
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The Limitations Act, 2002 sets a basic period of two years for most civil claims. It runs from the day the claim was discovered — not automatically from the day the thing happened, though the Act presumes those are the same date unless you can show otherwise.
Discovery has four parts. You knew, or a reasonable person in your position ought to have known, that an injury or loss occurred, that it was caused by an act or omission, that the person you want to sue was the one who did it, and that a court proceeding was an appropriate way to fix it. That last element is why the clock sometimes starts later than the incident.
There is a backstop. Regardless of when you discovered anything, an ultimate limitation period of fifteen years runs from the day the act or omission took place. For minors and for people who are incapable of running a lawsuit, the clock is generally suspended until a litigation guardian is appointed or capacity returns.
Notice periods are separate from limitation periods, they are much shorter, and they are enforced strictly. If you are injured because a municipality failed to keep a road or sidewalk in repair, written notice must go to the municipality within ten days under the Municipal Act, 2001. For an injury caused by snow or ice on private premises, the Occupiers' Liability Act requires written notice to the occupier or contractor within sixty days.
Suing the provincial Crown has its own rule. Under the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act, 2019, a claim for damages generally cannot be brought unless notice was served on the Crown at least sixty days before the proceeding starts. Failure to serve that notice can make the whole claim a nullity.
Some claims are not governed by the two-year rule at all. Claims to recover land, and claims for mortgage principal, generally fall under the Real Property Limitations Act with a ten-year period. Defamation in a newspaper or broadcast carries its own short notice and limitation requirements under the Libel and Slander Act. Contracts can also change the period: business parties can agree to vary or extend it, consumers generally cannot be shortened out of it.
A short list of proceedings has no limitation period. It includes a claim for a declaration where no consequential relief is sought, a proceeding to enforce an order of a court, and claims based on sexual assault. Certain other assault claims are also exempt where the parties were in an intimate relationship or one depended on the other financially, emotionally, physically or otherwise.
Do not read that list broadly. If your claim asks for money as well as a declaration, the exemption does not apply. And even where no limitation period runs, delay still hurts you — evidence disappears, witnesses move, and a defendant can argue you sat on your rights.
It is not automatically over. Limitation is a defence the other side has to plead, and there are real arguments against it. The most common is discoverability: the clock started later than the defendant says because you could not reasonably have known who was responsible or that suing was appropriate.
There are others. A written acknowledgment of liability, or a part payment on a debt, can restart the clock. Fraudulent concealment can suspend it. Where the parties agreed to have an independent third party resolve the dispute, the Act suspends the running of time in defined circumstances.
If the deadline was missed because a professional you retained sat on the file, that is a separate claim against that professional — and it carries its own two-year clock from the day you discovered the problem. That is one more reason to get advice the same week you realise a date may have gone by, not the same month.
Usually, because the Act presumes you discovered the claim on the day the act or omission happened. But that is only a presumption. If you could not reasonably have known you had a claim, or who was responsible, the start date can be later. You have to prove it.
No. Nothing stops a limitation period except issuing a claim in court, a written acknowledgment of liability by the other side, or a valid agreement to extend. Negotiations, complaints to a regulator and internal grievances generally do not pause it.
The clock generally does not run against a minor until they turn 18, unless a litigation guardian has been appointed for them. The same suspension applies to a person who is incapable of running the proceeding because of their physical, mental or psychological condition.
No. The same Limitations Act applies. What differs is the money limit — Small Claims Court now handles claims up to $50,000, raised from $35,000 on 1 October 2025. Choosing the wrong court does not buy you more time.
Sometimes. Discoverability, acknowledgment, fraudulent concealment and the exempt categories all give a route. None of them is a formality — each needs evidence. Get advice quickly, because the arguments get weaker the longer you wait to make them.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.