In British Columbia there is usually no one to sue. Since 1 May 2021, Enhanced Care pays for your care and your lost income regardless of who caused the crash, and in exchange most lawsuits are gone.
So the question that decides a recovery here is not what your claim is worth. It is what ICBC agrees to cover, for how long, and what you do when the answer is no.
What does Enhanced Care actually cover?
More than the old system did, and with no overall dollar limit on care. The main pieces, as ICBC sets them out:
- Treatment, pre-approved for the first twelve weeks. Physiotherapy, massage therapy, counselling and more, with no doctor's referral needed. You give the provider your claim number.
- Medical and rehabilitation care with no maximum. The old system capped it at $300,000 for a lifetime of care.
- Income replacement. Up to 90 per cent of your net income if your injuries keep you off work for seven days or more, based on a maximum insurable income of $122,500 a year, adjusted annually. Higher earners can buy top-up coverage.
- Permanent impairment compensation. Up to about $313,918 where an injury is catastrophic, with lesser amounts for serious permanent injuries that are not. Those figures are current as of April 2026 and change each 1 April.
- Loss of studies. Up to $12,525 for a school year missed because of the crash, pro-rated by term.
Benefits are for everyone living in British Columbia who is hurt in a crash: drivers, passengers, cyclists, pedestrians, whether or not they were responsible.
Can you still sue?
Rarely. For a crash on or after 1 May 2021, Enhanced Care does not allow most lawsuits. The exceptions are narrow, and the clearest one is where the at-fault driver is convicted of certain Criminal Code offences, impaired driving among them. In that situation a civil claim for certain damages is still open.
That is worth understanding early, because it changes where your effort belongs. Under the old system people gathered evidence for a court case that might come years later. Under this one, the evidence is for decisions being made about you this month.
What happens when ICBC says no?
There is a route, and it ends somewhere independent.
- Your recovery specialist. Ask what the decision was based on, and give them anything they did not have. Most disagreements are about missing information rather than bad faith.
- The manager who oversees your claim. Ask to speak with them if the answer does not change.
- The Civil Resolution Tribunal. The CRT is independent of ICBC and decides disputes about your entitlement to benefits, and about responsibility where it costs you money. It runs online, fees range from $75 to $200, and a tribunal member makes an enforceable decision if a case manager cannot help you settle it. A CRT decision can be taken to the B.C. Supreme Court for judicial review.
Disagreements about who was responsible have their own review first, with a deadline printed on the decision you were sent. Read that letter for the date rather than assuming.
Time limits apply to a CRT dispute too. The deadlines that run alongside your claim are on our British Columbia ICBC claim deadlines page.
Which decisions do people end up disputing?
Look at where the structure creates a decision point, and you can see them coming.
Week thirteen. Pre-approval covers the first twelve weeks. After that, continued treatment has to be justified, which means somebody is reading what your clinicians wrote in weeks one to twelve.
Whether you are still unable to work. Income replacement continues while your injuries keep you off. Each review of that asks what you can and cannot do now, not what you could not do in month one.
Whether an impairment is permanent. Permanent impairment compensation turns on an assessment of what has not recovered and is not expected to.
None of those three is settled by how much pain you are in. They are settled by what is in the file, written down by clinicians, over time.
What should you write down, starting today?
- Every treatment, from the first week. Date, provider, what was done and what they noted. Twelve weeks of steady attendance is itself evidence.
- What you cannot do at work. The task, not the feeling. Hours, lifting, sitting, driving, concentration. Note any modified duties you tried and how they went.
- The ordinary things you have lost. With dates, so the change is visible rather than asserted.
- Every call and letter with ICBC. The date, who you spoke to, what was decided and what you were asked for. Dispute deadlines run from decisions, so the date one arrived matters.
- What you have spent. Mileage to treatment, prescriptions, equipment, help at home. Submit receipts as you go rather than in a pile at the end.
A few minutes a day, and it is the same record that makes your treatment better, because your physiotherapist can see the week rather than the worst day of it.
The system is being reviewed this year
When Enhanced Care launched, the legislation committed to an independent review after five years. That review is happening now: a Special Committee of MLAs was appointed, and ICBC presented its overview of the model to the committee on 8 May 2026.
Nothing about that changes the benefits you can claim today. It does mean the rules could shift, so it is worth checking ICBC's own Enhanced Care page for the current position before you rely on a figure from anywhere, this page included.
What to read next
Recovering after a car accident in British Columbia covers the whole route and is free to read. Next door, Saskatchewan is the one province that lets people choose whether to keep the right to sue, and most have never made the choice knowingly: no fault or tort, which SGI coverage do you have. Alberta is heading this way on 1 January 2027, which is set out in the minor injury cap in Alberta, and what changes in 2027. 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: ICBC's Enhanced Care pages on care and recovery benefits, taking legal action and injury benefit disputes, its overview of Enhanced Care with amounts current as of April 2026, and its guide to Enhanced Accident Benefits.
Benefit amounts change every 1 April. 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 in British Columbia. It is not legal or medical advice. Your own entitlement depends on the facts of your claim and on the regulations in force, and a decision you disagree with is worth advice before you accept it.
