The claimant applied to the LAT to dispute several treatment plans. At the case conference, the insurer raised two preliminary issues: (1) whether the claimant was statute barred from pursuing his claim for medical benefits due to the two year limitation; and (2) if not, whether the claimant was precluded from proceeding with his claim for assistive devices due to non-attendance at insurer examinations. Adjudicator Lake found the claimant was statute barred from proceeding with his claim for entitlement to the medical benefits sought because his application was filed outside the two year limitation. The insurer had partially denied two of the treatment plans and denied the treatment plan for the assistive devices. The claimant did not dispute the sufficiency of the insurer’s denials. The claimant submitted that his application was filed on June 18, 2019 but provided no evidence to support this submission. The insurer submitted that the application was filed on June 24, 2019 with evidence by way of correspondence. The claimant requested the Tribunal exercise s.7 of the LAT Act to extend the limitation period. The claimant cited the Tribunal’s reconsideration decisions that Adjudicator Lake noted were currently under appeal to the Divisional Court. Adjudicator Lake indicated there was no direction in those cases yet on the issue from a court on the applicability of s.7 of the LAT Act and whether it conferred jurisdiction to the Tribunal to extend the limitation period. Adjudicator Lake further noted that she preferred the determination in earlier cases that found s.7 of the LAT Act did not apply to the limitation period in the SABS because the SABS is a regulation rather than an Act.
