After a car accident in New Brunswick, your recovery is funded first by Section B accident benefits from your own insurer, whoever was at fault. Section B pays treatment and rehabilitation up to $50,000 and part of your lost income. A separate claim against the at-fault driver is limited by the minor injury cap, $9,926.59 for crashes in 2026, unless your injury seriously impairs your work or daily life. The first deadlines fall within 30 and 90 days, so write things down from the start.
New Brunswick recorded an estimated 257.5 road injuries for every 100,000 people in 2023, according to Transport Canada's collision statistics. Each of those injuries opens the same two files. This article walks through both, and what to record so your recovery is clear on paper.
What does a New Brunswick car accident injury claim include?
Two separate claims that run side by side.
- Section B accident benefits, paid by your own insurer under your auto policy, or the policy of the vehicle you were in, regardless of fault. Pedestrians and cyclists can claim too.
- A claim against the at-fault driver for losses beyond what Section B covers, including pain and suffering, lost income and future care.
Missing a step in one file does not pause the other. That is why each has its own list of dates.
What does Section B pay?
The New Brunswick standard automobile policy sets these benefits:
- Medical and rehabilitation expenses up to $50,000, within four years of the accident.
- Income replacement of 80 per cent of your gross weekly income, less income replacement available elsewhere, to a maximum of $250 a week. You qualify where, within 30 days of the accident, you become substantially unable to do the essential duties of your work for at least seven days. Payments run up to 104 weeks, and beyond that only where you cannot do any work you are reasonably suited for.
- $100 a week for up to 52 weeks for a principal unpaid housekeeper who is completely incapacitated.
- Funeral expenses to $2,500, and death benefits.
Our New Brunswick Section B claim deadlines article sets out each benefit next to the clock that governs it.
How does the minor injury cap work?
It limits damages for pain and suffering in the claim against the at-fault driver, and nothing else. For a crash on or after 1 January 2026, the cap is $9,926.59, as announced by the Financial and Consumer Services Commission on 22 January 2026. It rises each 1 January with the provincial consumer price index.
Under the Injury Regulation as amended in 2013, a minor personal injury is a contusion, abrasion, laceration, sprain, strain or whiplash associated disorder, including clinically associated sequelae, that does not result in serious impairment or permanent serious disfigurement.
Serious impairment has three parts. The impairment substantially stops you doing the essential tasks of your work, your training or education, or your normal daily activities despite reasonable accommodation. It has been ongoing since the accident. It is not expected to improve substantially.
Whiplash is defined narrowly. A whiplash injury showing objective, demonstrable, definable and clinically relevant neurological signs, or a fracture or dislocation of the spine, is outside the definition. Our article “They Called My Injury Minor!” | What Is the Minor Injury Cap in New Brunswick? goes further into the test.
What are the timelines?
- Immediately: report to police where anyone was hurt or killed.
- 24 hours: where the other vehicle cannot be identified, report to a peace officer, or as soon as practicable.
- 30 days: written notice of your Section B claim to your insurer, or as soon as practicable after that.
- 90 days: proof of claim, counted from the accident, not from the day a form arrives.
- 1 year: to sue your own insurer over a Section B benefit, from the date the cause of action arose, usually the day a benefit was refused or stopped.
- 2 years: generally, to sue the at-fault driver, counted from when the claim was discovered under the Limitation of Actions Act.
Shorter notice periods apply where a local government or the province may be responsible. Our deadlines article covers them.
What if your insurer says no?
A refusal is a position, not the last word. Work through these steps in order and keep a copy of everything.
- Ask for the decision and reasons in writing. Note the date on the letter.
- Send what the adjuster has not seen. A clinical note, a work history, your own record of what you can no longer do.
- Use the insurer's complaint process and ask for its final position in writing, as the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada recommends.
- Ask the General Insurance OmbudService for a free, independent review of an auto insurance complaint.
- Contact the Financial and Consumer Services Commission, which regulates insurance in New Brunswick.
None of these steps stops the one year clock for a court action against your insurer. Write down the date a benefit stopped the day it happens.
What should you write down?
- Symptoms, day by day, with the date each one began. Record numbness or weakness as soon as you notice it.
- Work tasks you cannot do, named plainly, with what was offered instead and whether it worked.
- Daily activities you have stopped, and the date you stopped.
- The first day you could not work and the day you returned, since the income test turns on both.
- Every appointment, what was recorded, and the reason for any you missed.
- Every receipt for treatment, prescriptions, mileage and parking, across all four years.
- Every call and letter from your insurer, with the date and the person's name.
Keeping the record
Your claim is decided from what was written down while you were recovering. A few minutes a day gives you dates you can rely on and a clear account in your own words. The National MVA Recovery Guide holds that daily record, and the New Brunswick MVA Companion Guide keeps the provincial dates and forms together. For the full route, read Recovering After a Car Accident in New Brunswick. Lire en français : réclamation après un accident de la route au Nouveau-Brunswick.
Why use Hurt Square?
Because Section B pays on what you can show, and the minor injury cap looks at the same record. Hurt Square guides give you one place to keep it all.
- What you can show, with dates. The National MVA Recovery Guide has daily pain and symptom tracking, every appointment, medication, expenses and time away from work.
- The New Brunswick rules, in plain words. The New Brunswick MVA Companion Guide holds the deadlines, forms and insurer routes that apply in New Brunswick.
- Made for hard days. 192 pages and more than 1,600 fillable fields that work on your phone, tablet or computer, in plain language.
Both guides, $49. The National MVA Recovery Guide and the New Brunswick MVA Companion Guide, with the discount applied at checkout. Normally $63.99.
Get both guidesSources
- Financial and Consumer Services Commission, Insurance Notice: Annual Indexation, 22 January 2026
- N.B. Reg. 2013-37 amending the Injury Regulation, N.B. Reg. 2003-20, under the Insurance Act
- New Brunswick Standard Automobile Owner's Policy, Section B, as filed with the Financial and Consumer Services Commission
- Limitation of Actions Act, S.N.B. 2009, c. L-8.5
- Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, How to file a complaint about your insurance company
- Transport Canada, Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics 2023
Last verified: 14 October 2026. The cap changes every January. If you find something out of date here, write to Recovery@hurtsquare.ca and we will correct it publicly.
This article is general information for people in New Brunswick. It is not legal, medical or insurance advice.
