Examinations for Discovery / Car Accidents
Collision cases run on two tracks at once, and almost everything you have already told an insurer can be put to you on the day. Here is what the questions are actually for.
Reviewed August 2026Start here
This guide covers what is specific to a motor vehicle collision claim. For the process itself, including how long an examination lasts, who attends, undertakings and refusals, and the ten rules for giving evidence well, read our general guide to examinations for discovery in Ontario first.
Almost every serious collision produces two separate processes. There is the tort action against the other driver, which is what your discovery is about. Running alongside it is your accident benefits claim against your own insurer, which pays for treatment, income replacement and attendant care regardless of fault.
These get confused constantly, and the confusion matters here. Your accident benefits insurer can require you to attend an examination under oath. That is a different proceeding under different rules, and it is not the examination this guide is about. What connects them is that your accident benefits file, including the adjuster's notes, the forms you signed and any insurer medical assessments, is generally producible in the tort action. Defence counsel will have read all of it.
Anything you told your own insurer can be put to you by the other side's lawyer.
If you described your symptoms one way on a disability certificate and a different way at discovery, expect to be asked why.
Liability questioning is more granular than most people expect. Where you were coming from and going to. Your speed, and how you know it. Where your eyes were in the seconds before impact. Road, light and weather conditions. Whether you braked, and when you first saw the other vehicle. Seatbelt use. Whether your phone was in your hand, connected to the car, or anywhere you could reach it.
Some of this is aimed at contributory negligence, which is the argument that you bear part of the responsibility. Answer it straight. Speed and distance estimates are where witnesses do the most damage to themselves, because an estimate offered casually becomes evidence. If you do not know how fast you were going, say so.
You will be asked about prior injuries, prior collisions, prior claims, and your general health going back years. Family doctor records, prior imaging and often prior insurance files are produced.
The reason is that the defence position in most collision cases is not that you are uninjured. It is that some or all of what you are complaining about pre-dated the crash or would have happened anyway. Your prior health is how they test that. Understating a pre-existing problem is the single most damaging thing you can do, because the records will say otherwise and the contradiction becomes the story.
Expect questions about your job before the collision, your earnings, your attendance record, what you have tried since, and why you stopped if you did. Employment files and tax records are usually produced.
You will also be asked in detail about daily function: driving, housework, lifting, sleep, hobbies, childcare, and who helps you with what. In an Ontario collision case this line of questioning does real work, because your right to compensation for pain and suffering depends on showing a permanent serious impairment of an important function, and because a statutory deductible applies to those damages. The questions that sound like small talk about your weekend are usually aimed at exactly that.
Assume you have been watched, and assume your public social media has been reviewed. Surveillance video is common in collision files and is frequently held back until discovery so that your evidence can be locked in first.
This is not a reason to be defensive. It is a reason to be accurate. Describe your limitations as they actually are, including good days, and say so when a task is possible but costs you afterward. A witness who says they cannot lift anything and is then shown carrying groceries has a credibility problem. A witness who explained from the start that some days are better than others does not. Our guide to surveillance and social media during your claim goes into this further.
Separately from discovery, you may be required to attend a medical examination arranged by the defence, and you will likely have attended insurer assessments on the accident benefits side already. You will be asked what you told those assessors.
Tell each of them the same thing you tell everyone else, because every report ends up in the same file, side by side.
Davidson Cahill Morrison LLP
Our lawyers prepare clients for discovery in motor vehicle claims across Ontario. If you are facing an examination, we are glad to answer your questions.
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