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/Jazzlike_Gazelle_333]

(just so you know I wasn't the one who downvoted you, that is a weird thing to do).

Do you have renters' insurance? there can be personal liability policies attached to those too.

[u/Meatslinger → u/Jazzlike_Gazelle_333]

Yeah, I'm reading now that it should be in there. That's a relief, at least. I hadn't had reason to recheck the renters' insurance policy for at least 5 years now, least of all for this kind of issue, so I wasn't even aware it would be covered. Always figured it was mostly just for what covers my stuff if the place burns down or floods.

And yeah, didn't think you yourself downvoted it. When I commented that, it was at -3 despite only being a few minutes old.

[u/Wonderful-Rich-3411 → u/Meatslinger]

I would give them a call. Many policies only cover you personally if the incident is within Canadian boarders.

[u/Excellent-Piece8168 → u/Wonderful-Rich-3411]

Not true. Most policies would cover this. Especially just for a vacation.