We, The People of British Columbia, are calling on the BC Government to correct the unintended consequences of the 2013 Limitation Act (Bill 34).

While the Government debates Bill 9 at 3 AM to legalize 'unreasonable delays,' injured citizens are being timed out of justice. We are calling for an immediate halt to Section 9 and a return to the 6-year statute.

Our Demand:
We demand a targeted amendment to the Limitation Act that "tolls" (pauses) the limitation clock for anyone trapped in medical waits, access to records, fee waiver and correction review queues and disputes, OIPC/FOI investigations struggling without and need to bring a case to Human Rights or Civil Claims of Bad Faith.  Injured British Columbians are being timed out of justice. This leaves claimants without the evidence needed to meet their legal deadlines, or even timed out before they are even aware, especially if having multiple issues needing to have addressed and struggling without the proper legal support and guidance needed to even know where to start.

No British Columbian should lose their right to a fair claim or access to justice because of the current state of our government and the gaps in the system. Ideally, this current system should immediately be backdated to reflect the pre-June 1, 2013, standards, restoring a 6-year window for medical-legal and complex civil claims to reflect the reality of the struggles of injured without legal support and need for time for recovery without being pressured to meet unrealistic deadlines meant for a system that had lawyers overseeing the legal needs of an injured claimant.

Request for Action:

Invoke FIPPA Section 25 (Public Interest Override): We call for the immediate public release of ICBC’s internal operational claim management operations, indexed and timestamped for accountability to all injured claimants. Proactive disclosure is "clearly in the public interest" under Section 25 to ensure the system managing our health and finances is transparent.

Establish an "Optional Statutory Stay": Amend the Limitation Act and the Civil Resolution Tribunal Act to allow an optional pause for any claimant dealing with medical-legal access, corrections and disputes in the interim. This would "toll" (pause) the limitation clock for any claimant currently trapped in

• Medical-legal access disputes or "withholding" delays.
• Record correction reviews or OIPC/FOI investigations.
• Waitlists for essential objective medical (e.g. Specialist referral waits, Specialized Diagnostics, MRIs, Specialized Treatments and Surgery).

Restore Historical Standards:
We demand the government revise Section 6 of the Limitation Act to reflect the pre-June 1, 2013, standards. This would restore the 6-year window for medical-legal and complex civil claims, acknowledging the reality of long-term injury recovery and the loss of professional legal oversight in the current system.  

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Forced Tribunal Participation & Systemic Mis-Steering: Injured British Columbians are currently being prematurely steered toward the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) while experiencing systemic delays in the disclosure of internal operational guidelines and claim-management data required for them to represent themselves fairly. 

Many injured laypersons are unaware of the 'Correction Blind Spot': the CRT is designed to make binding decisions on the evidence presented, not to correct or rectify the underlying medical records.

The Evidentiary Race: Because claimants often cannot access their full records before the CRT process begins, they are forced into a process without even knowing what errors are in their ICBC internal operational claim file. By the time the CRT process begins, they have insufficient time to identify or challenge errors for the factual corrections needed thought the OIPC or medical board before a final, binding decision is rendered.

What appears to be Administrative Bad Faith: Steering an injured citizen toward a final legal adjudication while withholding the internal operational information regarding what ICBC is or is not relying upon to assess their claim—information they need to participate in their internal claim management well before the CRT—is a systemic deprivation of Procedural Fairness and results in a permanent loss of access to justice.

The Vendor Portal and Data Integrity Failures:
The ICBC Vendor Portal allows for, and pays for, submissions that go unchecked, entering a claimant’s file—sometimes fundamentally errored and incomplete—without being provided directly to the injured party for verification or review before being relied upon by ICBC to assess their claim. This lack of verification creates a system where vendors, operating within gaps in oversight, can submit factually misleading information into a claim without the claimant’s knowledge or consent. In some cases, a claimant may never even know a submission exists, directly and unfairly affecting their supports and claim outcomes.

The Systemic Withholding of Medical Data: Many healthcare providers—both contracted and independent—along with public entities (BCEHS, some Hospital , FOI Departments and Clinics), are systematically withholding patient medical-legal documentation for extended periods from some claimants which can significantly affect the continuity of the injuries sustained, post mvi condition and subsequent care they need.

This withholding is often compounded by high fee barriers, ranging from $40–$50 for a single brief visit, $150 per provider, to over $300 per clinic—merely for a review of accuracy in the clinic files ICBC is accessing. Providers are often unwilling to release these records for review until paid, and at times suggesting claimants have ICBC request the files 'for them' to guarantee provider payment. This practice results in the withholding of the medical truth, denying patients their legal right to see and correct their own data before it is implemented into their file and relied upon by ICBC to decide their supports and their future.
 

There must be a public audit to cross-reference claimant complaints with the specific reasons of the ICBC complaint process "conclusion" of a complaint. The current process lacks transparency and systematically appears to ignore the root cause of grievances. Internal departments often appear to be minimizing significant complaints regarding the handling of ICBC claims by closing them as general "benefit disputes," and prematurely directing to the CRT. This practice leaves evidence of administrative failure or misconduct miscategorized as a routine disagreement over supports or money.

The Access-to-Justice Paradox: The current 2-year CRT Statute of Limitations is fundamentally incompatible with the 1-year+ wait times for OIPC and FOI records, 1 year for Human Rights and 2 years for Civil claims. Injured laypersons struggling with injuries and getting through their day while additionally being left to also manage their own complex taxing claims process meant for trained injury lawyers and insurance adjusters, are being "timed out" of justice while struggling with injuries and a medical system under strain. No citizen should lose their right to justice because of systemic gaps in the system.

Time-Sensitive Harm: The current OIPC review process, which queues for review often takes many months and at times upwards of over a year, is ineffective for claimants with active CRT deadlines which is currently only at 2 years after the June 1, 2013 Government changes, which was previously 6 years when lawyers were involved to 2 despite the 2021 system largely removing legal support and oversight unless the driver who cause harm was charged with a criminal offense. Injured laypersons only having 2 years while at the time being withheld the very medical-legal information they need is an additional unfair gap that was overlooked in the 2021 changes.

Systemic Deprivation of Rights: This is systemic problem that needs to be addressed that prevents injured British Columbians from correcting errors in their files before legal statutory deadlines expire and not a fair process system to those already struggling with injuries or the loss of a loved one from a careless driver. 

Before June 1, 2013: The old system had a 6-year limitation period when a claimant had a lawyer. The 2013 change "standardized" almost all civil claims to a strict 2-year countdown. This limited time still left to injured laypersons struggling with injuries left without the legal support they needs through their claims and care process while ICBC and medical entities are simultaneously withholding the very information a claimant need the ability to review and correct before ICBC relied upon and is presented to the CRT and ICBC has their own lawyers and paid IMA/IME Dr's leaving the injured with no fair recourse to aid in rebutting their injury claim.

These are Serious Public Security Medical-Legal Concerns being ongoing overlooked that results in a permanent loss of access to justice.

No to Bill 9 / Section 9

Return to the 6-year statutes - Call for Access to Justice

End ICBC No-Fault Insurance System - Protect the People, Not the Insurer

Disclaimer: I am an injured layperson struggling through this system like many other British Columbians, I'm not a lawyer, and this disclosure does not constitute legal advice. This information is shared in the Public Interest under Section 25 of FIPPA to highlight systemic risks to the integrity of medical-legal data in British Columbia. All statements are based on documented personal experience. Every case is unique; please consult a legal professional or the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) regarding your specific rights, cases and deadlines.