A slip and fall in Ontario has a deadline most people have never heard of, and it is not the two year limitation. Where the fall was caused by snow or ice, written notice has to go out within 60 days, and within 10 if you fell on a municipal sidewalk.
About this work
Because conditions underfoot change within hours. The purpose of a short notice period is to let the occupier or the municipality investigate while there is still something to look at: the weather that day, the salting and ploughing records, the state of the surface. By the time a claim arrives two years later none of that can be reconstructed.
If the notice is missed, the action is barred unless one of two exceptions applies. Neither is automatic. The first is death: failure to give notice is not a bar where the injured person died as a result of the injury. The second is a judicial finding that there was a reasonable excuse for the want or insufficiency of the notice and that the defendant is not prejudiced in its defence.
That second exception is argued on a motion, and prejudice is where it is usually lost. The longer the delay, the easier it is for a defendant to say the records are gone and the weather cannot be reconstructed. A claim that could have been preserved with a letter in the first fortnight becomes a contested motion about whether it survives at all.
So the practical advice is unglamorous. Where somebody has fallen on ice, the notice goes out immediately, in writing, by registered mail, with the date, time and location, whether or not anybody has yet decided to bring a claim.
The deadline nobody mentions
The two year limitation period is not the problem on these claims. The notice periods are, because they run in days rather than years and they start on the day of the fall. Miss one and the action is barred no matter how strong the claim was.
Section 6.1 of the Occupiers' Liability Act bars an action for personal injury caused by snow or ice unless, within 60 days of the occurrence, written notice of the claim including the date, time and location has been personally served on, or sent by registered mail to, an occupier or an independent contractor employed to remove snow or ice on those premises.
Under subsection 44(10) of the Municipal Act, 2001 no action for failure to keep a highway or bridge in repair may be brought unless written notice of the claim and the injury, including the date, time and location, was served on or sent by registered mail to the clerk of the municipality within 10 days of the occurrence.
Subsection 44(9) provides that except in the case of gross negligence, a municipality is not liable for personal injury caused by snow or ice on a sidewalk. So a fall on the council's sidewalk needs a shorter notice and a harder case than the identical fall on the shop's forecourt beside it.
Failure to give notice is not a bar where the injured person died as a result of the injury. And it is not a bar if a judge finds there was a reasonable excuse for the want or insufficiency of the notice and that the defendant is not prejudiced in its defence. That is a motion to be argued, not a right.
Side by side
6 points of difference
Two people can fall on ice a metre apart, one on a shop's forecourt and one on the public sidewalk, and be in entirely different legal positions. This is the first thing to establish, before anything else.
The route
4 stages, each with its own clock
Every period below is set by an Ontario statute and the provision is named beside it. The first two run in days from the fall itself, not from the day anybody decided to make a claim.
Written notice of the claim and of the injury, with the date, time and location, served on or sent by registered mail to the clerk. Where two municipalities are jointly responsible, to each of their clerks.
Written notice with the date, time and location, personally served on or sent by registered mail to an occupier or to a contractor employed to remove snow or ice there. Notice to any one of them lifts the bar even against a party who did not receive it.
An occupier who receives a notice must serve or mail a copy on any other occupier during the relevant period and on any contractor employed to clear snow or ice. A contractor who receives one must copy the occupier who employed it.
The basic limitation period, running from the day the claim was discovered, with a presumption that it was discovered on the day the fall happened unless the contrary is proved.
Before the meeting
6 things to bring
Bring what you have and say what is missing. A meeting with the papers in front of it settles in one sitting what two telephone calls will not.
Our approach
The same four steps on every matter, whether it is a refusal at the Federal Court or a ticket at the Provincial Offences court.
Book a consultationWe take the full history and read the documents before offering an opinion. Most bad advice comes from acting on half the facts.
You get a candid read on strength, timeline and cost, including when the honest answer is that you do not need to hire anyone.
We prepare the application, the defence or the appeal properly the first time, because fixing a weak record later is harder and dearer.
You hear from us at each stage, and you hear what a wait actually means rather than a date chosen to sound better.
Reported decisions
7 allowed of 22 reported since 2023
Public judgments of the Federal Court with Kapil Rathod as counsel of record, each checkable by citation on the court's own site. The rest were dismissed and are listed with these ones.
Super visa, parents and grandparents
2026 FC 99Docket IMM-23381-24
Application allowedWork permit, Temporary Foreign Worker Program
2026 FC 105Docket IMM-18690-24
Application allowedTemporary resident visa
2026 FC 805Docket IMM-20802-24
Application allowedPermanent residence, Express Entry
2025 FC 275Docket IMM-1797-24
Application allowedWork permit, job offer
2024 FC 1928Docket IMM-6445-23
Application allowedStudy permit
2024 FC 1487Docket IMM-3700-23
Application allowedTemporary resident visa
2024 FC 1453Docket IMM-10337-23
Application allowedA slip and fall in Ontario turns first on where you fell and on whether notice went out in time.
Sixty days on private premises, ten on a municipal sidewalk, and the evidence that decides the case is created in the first few days after it happens.
Common questions
7 answered here
Written to be read once and acted on rather than to be rung about. Each answer is complete where the law allows a complete answer.
On private premises, an occupier or an independent contractor employed by the occupier to remove snow or ice on those premises during the relevant period. Section 6.1 then does something helpful: notice given to any one person on that list lifts the bar, even if the action is later brought against somebody who did not originally receive it.
It also imposes onward obligations. An occupier who receives a notice must copy it to any other occupiers during the relevant period and to any snow removal contractor. A contractor who receives one must copy the occupier that employed it. So a single properly addressed letter is designed to reach the right parties even when the claimant does not know who they are.
Working out who the occupier is can be genuinely difficult in a plaza or a condominium, where the owner, the property manager, the tenant and the contractor may all have a role. That is an argument for sending the notice promptly to whoever is identifiable rather than waiting until the structure is understood.
On a municipal sidewalk the recipient is the clerk of the municipality, and where two municipalities are jointly responsible for the highway or bridge, the clerk of each.
On private premises, that the occupier failed in the duty of care it owed. That is ordinary negligence, judged against what was reasonable in the circumstances: the weather, what the occupier knew, what its maintenance system was, and whether it was actually followed on the day. Maintenance and contractor records are the case.
On a municipal sidewalk it is harder, because subsection 44(9) of the Municipal Act provides that except in the case of gross negligence a municipality is not liable for injury caused by snow or ice on a sidewalk. Gross negligence is a markedly higher standard than ordinary negligence, and it is why identical falls a few feet apart produce different outcomes.
In both cases the evidence that decides it is created in the first days. Photographs of the surface taken at the time, the footwear worn, the names of anybody who saw it or who helped, the incident report if the premises made one, and a note of the weather. Nobody can recreate any of that later, and the defence will have the salting records.
Not necessarily, and it is urgent. The 60 day notice under section 6.1 of the Occupiers' Liability Act may still be open depending on the date, and if it has passed there are two exceptions: death, and a judicial finding of reasonable excuse together with no prejudice to the defence. If the fall was on a municipal sidewalk the 10 days will have gone and the same second exception is the route. Either way this is a matter of days, not weeks.
No. Section 6.1 applies to personal injury caused by snow or ice. A fall caused by a wet floor inside a shop, or by a broken step, is governed by the ordinary limitation period rather than by that notice requirement. The municipal notice under subsection 44(10) is about failure to keep a highway or bridge in repair.
Two reasons, both statutory. The notice period is 10 days rather than 60, and under subsection 44(9) a municipality is not liable for injury caused by snow or ice on a sidewalk except in the case of gross negligence. That is a higher standard than the ordinary negligence that applies to a private occupier.
Serve whoever you can identify, promptly. Section 6.1 provides that notice to any one person on its list lifts the bar even against a party who did not receive it, and it requires occupiers and contractors who receive a notice to pass copies on. A letter sent to the identifiable occupier is far better than a perfectly addressed one sent after the period has run.
Two years from the day the claim was discovered, under section 4 of the Limitations Act, 2002, with a presumption under section 5(2) that you discovered it on the day of the fall. The notice period is a separate and much shorter requirement that sits in front of it.
Bring the date, the location and any photographs. A slip and fall in Ontario runs on a notice period measured in days, so this is worth doing now rather than later.
