If you were hurt in a collision on Prince Edward Island and your injury has been called minor, the most that can be paid for pain and suffering is $9,659 for an accident in 2026.
That limit covers pain and suffering only. Your lost income, your treatment costs and what you pay out of pocket are claimed separately and are not capped.
Only three injuries can be capped at all, and there is a rule about treatment that decides more cases than most people would guess.
How much is the cap in 2026?
$9,659, for an accident during the 2026 calendar year. The Financial and Consumer Services Division sets the figure each year under the Insurance Act and published this year's on 2 February 2026, after a 1.4 per cent rise in the Island's consumer price index.
The amount for a calendar year applies to accidents that happen during that year, so the date of the collision decides which figure you are measured against.
| Year of the accident | Most recoverable for pain and suffering |
|---|---|
| 2026 | $9,659 |
| 2025 | $9,526 |
| 2024 | $9,358 |
| 2023 | $9,094 |
| 2022 | $8,358 |
Older collisions sit under the rules of their day. An accident between 1 October 2014 and 31 December 2015 carries a cap of $7,500, and one between 1 April 2004 and 30 September 2014 carries $2,500 under the wider definition that applied then.
What the cap does not touch
It limits damages for pain and suffering. These are separate and uncapped:
- Income you have lost, and income you will lose
- Treatment your insurer will not cover
- Help at home you now need and did not need before
- Mileage, parking, prescriptions and equipment
Your Section B benefits are separate again and move much faster. Our page on Prince Edward Island Section B claim deadlines lists each date.
Which injuries can be capped?
Three. Since 1 October 2014, a minor personal injury on Prince Edward Island means a sprain, a strain or a whiplash-associated disorder injury, along with anything clinically associated with one of them, that does not result in a serious impairment.
Anything outside those three is not a minor personal injury at all. A fracture is not. A concussion is not. And where you were hurt in more than one way, each injury is assessed separately, so one capped injury does not carry the others down with it.
What takes an injury out of the cap?
A serious impairment. The question is not how the injury sounds but what it has done to your ability to work, to study and to get through an ordinary day, and whether that is expected to continue.
Two rules shape how that gets decided. Your pre-existing medical history is taken into account, which can explain your limits or be used to argue they were already there. And the sprain, strain or whiplash injury has to be the primary factor causing the impairment rather than one of several.
There is also a duty on your side. Where accommodation is offered at work or in a course you were enrolled in, you are expected to use it. Trying it and recording what happened is stronger evidence than never having tried.
The treatment rule
This is the one that catches people. If you do not seek and comply with all reasonable treatment recommendations of a medical practitioner, without a reasonable excuse, your injury is treated as a minor personal injury even where it did cause a serious impairment, unless you can establish that the impairment would have happened anyway.
Missed appointments are rarely about willingness. They are about a shift you could not drop, a child with nobody else to collect them, a bridge toll and a tank of gas, a waitlist, a week when you felt better. Some of those may well be a reasonable excuse, but only if anyone knows about them.
So go when you can, and on the days you cannot, write down why while the reason is still exact.
What should you write down, starting today?
Five things, each answering part of the question someone will later be asked to decide.
- The essential tasks you can no longer do. The lift, the reach, the hours on your feet, the drive. Add what was offered instead, whether you tried it, and how it went.
- The ordinary parts of your day you have lost. Sleeping through, carrying the groceries, the walk you used to take, lifting your child. Write dates rather than adjectives.
- That it has not let up. Gaps in a record are what get argued about. A line a week through a better stretch keeps the account continuous.
- Every appointment, and every one you missed. What was recorded at each visit, and beside a missed one, the reason, on the day.
- What anyone has said about the future. Whether improvement is expected, and by whom and when it was said.
It takes a few minutes a day. It is also the only account of your recovery that will exist when somebody decides which category you belong in.
How long do you have?
Section B deadlines come first, and they are measured in days rather than months: our Prince Edward Island Section B page sets them out.
A court claim against the other driver falls under the Statute of Limitations. Clause 2(1)(d) allows two years for an action for injury to the person, whether it arises from an unlawful act or from negligence.
Read the next part twice, because the Island counts differently from its neighbours. Those two years run from the day the cause of action arose, which after a collision normally means the day of the crash. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick both count their two years from the day the claim is discovered. Courts can still apply a discoverability principle in some situations, so if your injury only declared itself later, ask early rather than assume.
Two extensions are written into the Act. Where the injured person was under a disability, which the Act defines as minority or unsoundness of mind, the action can be brought within two years after that ends. And where the person you would sue was out of the province when the cause of action arose, you have two years after they return.
What to read next
Recovering after a car accident in Prince Edward Island covers the whole route and is free to read. The other two Maritime caps work on the same idea with different numbers: the minor injury cap in Nova Scotia and the minor injury cap in New Brunswick. Newfoundland and Labrador has no cap at all, and a $5,000 deductible in its place. Anywhere else in Canada, start with the guides by province and territory.
Every figure here comes from a named source.
Last verified: September 2026.
Verified against: Bulletin 2026-001 of the Financial and Consumer Services Division of Prince Edward Island, issued 2 February 2026; the Insurance Act as amended for accidents occurring on or after 1 October 2014; and the Statute of Limitations, R.S.P.E.I. 1988, Cap. S-7, clause 2(1)(d), in the Legislative Counsel Office consolidation current to 17 November 2021.
The cap changes every January. If you find something out of date on this page, write to Recovery@hurtsquare.ca and we will correct it publicly.
This is general information for people on Prince Edward Island. It is not legal or medical advice. Whether the cap applies to a particular injury, and which date your own deadline runs from, are legal questions decided on the facts, and both are worth advice before you settle anything.
