Alberta Section B Accident Benefit Deadlines

The dates that govern an Alberta Section B claim. Free. No email required. For drivers, passengers, cyclists and people on foot.

Alberta runs on Section B, the no-fault accident benefits built into every standard automobile policy in the province. You can claim them whoever caused the crash, including when it was you.

One date matters more than any other. Thirty days. Everything below explains what has to happen inside it and what to write down at the moment it matters.

How long do you have to notify your insurer in Alberta?

Thirty days from the accident. The regulation requires a properly completed prescribed claim form to reach the insurer's head office or chief agency in Alberta within thirty days of the accident. If giving notice inside thirty days is not reasonable, it must be given as soon as practicable after that, and you should explain the reason for the delay when you send it.

Someone can send it on your behalf, which matters if you are in hospital. You claim Section B from the insurer of the vehicle you were in. If you were on foot or on a bicycle, you claim from the insurer of the vehicle that struck you.

Write down before you hang up. The date and time you called. The name of the person who answered. Your claim number. Which forms they are sending and when.

Is the AB-1 due in 30 days or 90 days?

Thirty. And a great deal of published guidance in Alberta says ninety.

We went to the Automobile Accident Insurance Benefits Regulation itself. Its Notice and Proof of Claim provision sets thirty days from the accident for the completed prescribed claim form to reach the insurer. That form is the AB-1.

The ninety days is a real rule that has been attached to the wrong thing. Ninety days from the accident is the point after which continued treatment needs your insurer's approval. It is not a filing deadline for your claim form. Relying on it as one could cost you thirty days you did not know you were spending.

Does the insurer pay for the doctor to fill in the form?

Yes, and almost nobody asks. The regulation requires your insurer to pay all expenses incurred in completing the medical report portion of the prescribed claim form.

If a clinic asks you for a fee to complete that section, that cost belongs to the insurer. Get the receipt and send it on.

There is a second thing worth knowing. If your treatment falls under the Diagnostic and Treatment Protocols, you do not need to wait for the insurer before starting. Waiting for permission you do not need is how the early weeks get lost.

Which Alberta accident benefit form is which?

This trips people up constantly, and a fair amount of published guidance has it wrong. These are the prescribed forms as the Alberta Superintendent of Insurance lists them.

Form	What it is	Who completes it
AB-1	Notice of Loss and Proof of Claim	You
AB-1A	Claim for Disability Benefits	A physician
AB-2	Treatment Plan	Your primary health care practitioner
AB-3	Progress Report	Your practitioner at the insurer's request
AB-4	Concluding Report	The practitioner who did most of your treatment
AB-5	Referral to an Injury Management Consultant	The practitioner requesting the consult

Note what this means in practice. Only the AB-1 is yours to complete. Every other form depends on a health professional filling it in properly and on time, which is why what you tell them at each appointment ends up shaping your claim.

How long do Section B benefits last?

Two years from the accident. Section B covers reasonable expenses for necessary treatment incurred inside that window, to a limit of fifty thousand dollars per person. Expenses fall outside once the two years is up, whatever the state of your recovery.

Track spend against the limit from day one. Fifty thousand sounds generous until physiotherapy, chiropractic, massage and psychological treatment run in parallel for eighteen months. People find the ceiling at the worst possible moment because nobody was counting.

What happens if you cannot return to work?

If you were working at the time and have not been able to return within sixty days, a weekly disability benefit can begin. It pays the lesser of eighty percent of your gross weekly earnings or six hundred dollars a week, less any Employment Insurance or occupational income available, for up to one hundred and four weeks.

The first seven days are not payable. That is often called a waiting period, though it is really an exclusion written into the law, so those seven days do not arrive later.

The AB-1A that supports the benefit is completed by a physician, so book that appointment well before the sixty days is up rather than after.

Keeping the record these deadlines depend on

Alberta puts most of your claim in the hands of health professionals filling in forms. What they write comes from what you tell them, and what you tell them comes from what you remembered on the day.

Two things decide how an injury claim goes. What you wrote down and whether you did the right thing at the right time for where you live. The National Recovery Guide handles the first, the daily record of symptoms, appointments, calls and costs that a claim is eventually judged on. The Provincial Companion Guide handles the second, the deadlines on this page and the forms, boards and appeal routes behind them. People who have only one tend to end up with a careful record aimed at the wrong process, or the right dates and nothing to put in front of them.

Recovery First. Pressure Last.

See the Alberta MVA Companion Guide

The scene checklist for the first three days is at hurtsquare.ca/72. It is free and asks nothing of you.

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This page is general information for people in Alberta. It is not legal or medical advice. Rules differ by province and change over time. Confirm anything specific to your situation with a lawyer, your insurer or the Alberta Superintendent of Insurance.