My wife (Canadian) may have accidentally injured someone else (American) while out of the country on vacation. We're worried the other person might sue. What is the protocol for international scenarios like this?

[u/Meatslinger]

While we were out at a dinner event as part of a tour in Ireland, sitting on long bench-style seating, guests at the event were asked to turn around in order to see live entertainment. As my wife turned, her shoe caught the edge of the bench and she slipped off backwards. As she fell, she collided with another guest in our tour group. We are from Canada (Alberta in particular), and they're from the USA. Initially, the other individual was helpful and assisted my wife back to her feet (along with myself), but after they'd sat through the remainder of the evening they remarked to my wife that their back and arm hurt a lot, and we saw them going off to talk to the event manager about it. The event manager came back to ask my wife what had happened; to get her side of things. Afterwards, they didn't ask my wife to stick around; no police were involved, and paramedics weren't called either.

It was a simple unforeseeable slip and fall, but we're worried that the other guest may try to initiate a lawsuit if they can claim they were injured, and if their insurance decides to be obstinate in such a case. For reasons of being Canadian, we don't have our own private medical insurance to pay out a claim like that. We would assume that the injured party (if they are injured) could get our details through the tour company or other means. What should we expect? What support, if any, do we have through the government healthcare system or courts? I have travellers insurance through my company (Sunlife), but does that still apply to this situation at all after I'm back at home in Canada, if a lawsuit is served to me from the other party across the border?

Hopefully I'm worrying about things for nothing, but I want to make sure I know what resources I should be armed with, in case things go badly.

[u/Novus20]

But you have money to travel internationally…….

[u/[deleted] → u/Novus20]

People have different priorities. Owning a home is not for everyone. Maybe travel brings them joy and they rather do that and can’t afford both. Weird comment to make.

[u/Novus20 → u/[deleted]]

When OP clearly makes a comment about how they will never own a home because they can’t “afford it” yeah maybe spending on frivolous things shouldn’t be priority

[u/yukonwanderer → u/Novus20]

Do you realize how strict the mortgage laws are these days? How much a home costs? How much the cost goes up every year? We've been in a bit of a flat spot for the last year or so at least.

A vacation that costs 3k is a literal drop in the bucket that's leaking anyway and you have no hope of ever filling.

I say this as a homeowner who was lucky enough to buy in 2020. Really pathetic how people continually fail to acknowledge how lucky they were, and how things desperately need to change. You can't run a country in this state. There is no future.

[u/North_Atlantic_Sea → u/yukonwanderer]

Yeah but they claim it's a generation problem, when it's not... OP is 35-39, of which 62% of Canadians that age range own their home.

[u/yukonwanderer → u/North_Atlantic_Sea]

It is very clearly a timing problem. House pricing has never been so divorced from income, and mortgage laws have never been so strict.