Car & Motorcycle Accident Lawyers
Dealing with the consequences of a car or motorcycle accident can be very challenging. Your injuries can cause you serious suffering and have devastating financial consequences.
Fidelis Law has a team of experienced personal injury lawyers in New Brunswick who are dedicated to protecting your rights, providing you with the knowledge you need, and pursuing your accident claim to make sure you get the compensation you deserve.
Contact us for a free consultation
We offer free consultations for personal injuries resulting from motor vehicle accidents, slip and falls, pedestrian accidents and other accidents as well as Long Term Disability claims. Contact our team of lawyers for all of your legal needs.
What to do after a motor vehicle accident
The insurance claim process after a motor vehicle accident can be overwhelming and confusing. Here are some guidelines to help you through the process – but keep in mind that every case is different, so it’s best to talk to a lawyer if you have questions about your specific situation.
If you want to know more about what to do after a motor vehicle accident, you can read our blog post about the steps you should take.
An important note about deadlines
There are several deadlines that affect motor vehicle insurance claims. For example, you have two years after the date of the accident to file a lawsuit against the other driver and owner of the other vehicle. If you were under the age of 19 at the time of the collision, you have until your 21st birthday to file a lawsuit.
1. See a doctor
If you need emergency care, go to the hospital. If not, consult your family doctor. Discuss all of your injuries. If your doctor places you off work or prescribes treatments or medication, it’s for your own health, so be sure to follow the advice they give you.
Keep your medical receipts! Each insurer works differently so you may have to pay upfront for treatments and send in receipts for reimbursement. In addition, any expenses you incur as a result of your injuries, like snow removal or housekeeping services, can be claimed against the other driver when the time comes. This type of insurance claim can take a while, so be sure to keep all of your receipts to track what you have paid for out of pocket.
2. Tell your employer
If you have been placed off work or given restrictions by your doctor, make sure to let your employer know. Provide doctors’ notes and explain the situation. If your job is physically demanding, it’s OK to ask for accommodations or help from coworkers.
3. Open an EI claim
Employment insurance sick benefits are available for up to 15 weeks if you are unable to work for medical reasons, your regular weekly earnings from work have decreased by more than 40% for at least one week and have accumulated the required insured hours. You can visit the EI sick benefits webpage for more information or call Service Canada at 1-800-206-7218.
4. Open a claim with your insurance company
Your car or motorcycle insurance includes coverage for medical treatments and lost wages, among others. You have to notify your insurance company within 30 days of your accident if you plan on making a claim. However, if it has been more than 30 days, contact them as soon as possible.
Do not speak with the other driver’s insurance company! They may seem friendly and simply ask for a statement or offer to help, but the other driver’s insurance company is not your friend. You should refer the adjuster to your lawyer if you have retained one already or let them know that you intend to hire one.
5. Contact a personal injury lawyer
Before talking to the other driver’s insurance company, we suggest talking to a lawyer who has experience in personal injury law for advice on your particular situation.
Fidelis Law offers free consultations – contact us and we’ll help answer your questions. We also have a “no fee unless you win” policy, which means you pay nothing unless your insurance claim is successful.
6. Open disability claims with other insurers
If you have disability insurance or private health insurance (often through your employer), you should open claims with them as well.
In the case of health insurance, you are required to first use your private coverage, while your motor vehicle insurance will cover any exceeding amounts incurred for treatments and medications in relation to the car accident.
What are you entitled to?
The standard automobile insurance policy in New Brunswick is divided into several sections . The Sections A, B and D are mandatory:
Section B
Section B is no-fault, which means that regardless of who is responsible for the accident, you are entitled to benefits for medical expenses and loss of income from your insurer.
Your insurance company is obligated to pay for medical, surgical, dental, chiropractic, ambulance, hospital and nursing services that are resulting from the accident. Your insurer is obligated to pay for these treatments during the four years following the accident, to a maximum of fifty thousand dollars. Learn more about Section B and medical expenses here.
Important tip
If your family doctor or a doctor at the hospital recommends any treatment for your injuries sustained in the accident, make sure the prescription states that the treatment is necessary because of your accident.
Loss of Earnings benefits
If you can’t fully go back to work because of your accident you may be entitled to payment for loss of income, as long as you were employed on the date of the accident or worked for 6 of the 12 months before the accident. You also need to show that you can no longer perform the essential duties of your job for at least 7 of the first 30 days following the accident.
The payment for loss of income will be 80% of your gross weekly income, minus certain other payments for loss of income from employment that are available to you. The maximum amount of weekly indemnity benefits is $250. Learn more about Section B and Loss of Earnings benefits here.
If your insurer refuses to pay you these indemnities, our accident lawyers can help you resolve the issue.
Section A
Section A is a third party liability insurance. In other words it offers protection to the at-fault party from claims against them for losses or damages caused to another person. This also means that, if you are injured in an accident, and you are not at fault, you can sue the person responsible for the accident and their Section A will pay for the losses or damages caused by the accident on behalf of the insured. A lawyer will typically be hired for this kind of claim.
If you are wondering how much your car accident claim against the at-fault driver is worth, our personal injury lawyers are here to guide you and provide advice.
There are several types of damages that could be claimed against the person responsible for the accident:
Loss of income
Section B and employment insurance may not cover all of your lost wages. If that’s the case, you will be able to claim the difference from the at-fault driver. You can submit a claim for past and future loss of income, whether it’s caused by an inability to work, but also if you had to change jobs for a lower paying job, or if you will have to retire early as a result of the accident.
General damages
These damages will compensate you for your pain and suffering experienced since the accident and for the loss of enjoyment of life that you experienced after the accident. The Section A adjuster may have told you that your case was “capped”. This is the category of damage that they are referring to. According to the New Brunswick Injury Regulations, the maximum amount recoverable in damages under this specific category for all minor personal injuries is $7,500, adjusted for inflation.
Don’t let an adjuster convince you that your injuries are minor. Minor injuries are defined as a contusion, abrasion, laceration, sprain, strain, or whiplash that do not substantially prevent you from performing the essential duties of your job, the essential duties of your training or education program, or your normal daily activities. If you experience these kinds of impacts on your life as a result of your accident, you are entitled to more than the limit for minor injuries. Chronic pain is a common example of an injury that may not be captured by the minor injury compensation cap. To learn more, you can read our blog post about “the cap” on compensation.
Other benefits
You may be entitled to Employment Insurance sickness benefits and/or your own disability insurance, through an individual plan or group plan. You may also be entitled to other benefits like Canada Pension Plan disability benefits. We have disability lawyers who are experienced with disability insurance claims and who can help you with any of your claims should you have any issues.
Liability
In order to be compensated for the injuries you sustained (in other words, recover damages from the Section A insurer), the other driver must at least be partially responsible for the collision. If you are partially at fault, you can still be partially compensated. For some accidents, liability is clear, while for others it is less so. Here are some of the types of accidents we often see:
Head-on collision
These are not the only types of accidents that happen. If you’ve been injured in any kind of accident (not just the ones we listed above), contact us for a free consultation on your specific case.
Dealing with insurance adjusters
Whether it’s your insurance adjuster or the insurance adjuster for the at-fault driver, be careful with the information you give them. They are not your friends. We know you have a lot on your plate, and that’s why we want to take care of communicating with the adjusters for you. Read more about communicating with insurance adjusters here.
Although you have an obligation to communicate with your own insurance company after an accident, we recommend that you only contact your Section B adjuster for your medical treatments and loss of income compensation. If you hire our team of accident lawyers, they will get in touch with us directly for the rest.
The accident claim process
Once you have retained the services of one of our motor vehicle accident lawyers, what is the process to follow for your accident claim? We break it down for you step-by-step in our Guide to the Personal Injury Litigation Process.
It’s important to know that the process can be lengthy and complex, and that each personal injury case is different. They do not all take the same time to resolve, and do not all go through the same steps.
Most personal injury cases settle without going to trial, and sometimes without a lawsuit being filed in court. The litigation process can follow many different paths, and we can’t always determine what path it will take at the beginning.
One thing is certain: If you’ve been injured in an accident, the Fidelis Law team is here to guide you through the litigation process and handle all the details so that you can focus on your health.
Do I really need a lawyer?
Hiring a personal injury lawyer to represent you is completely optional.
Some people choose to represent themselves. We believe that hiring a lawyer to represent you is a smart move. The insurance company has a whole team of adjusters and lawyers on their side with years of experience in making sure insurance payouts – including yours – are as small as possible. A lawyer with experience in insurance claims, on the other hand, will fight for you to make sure you get the full accident settlement you deserve.
With offices in Moncton and Edmundston, Fidelis Law represents clients from all over New Brunswick. We will be in your corner every step of the way and will make sure you get compensated fairly. Whether it’s answering your questions, standing up to the insurance companies for you,, or defending your rights before a judge, you can count on us.
How much will a lawyer’s services cost?
For motor vehicle accidents, Fidelis Law works on a contingent fee basis, which means you won’t have to pay us until you receive compensation for your injuries. Our payment will be a percentage of the amount we recover for you in an accident settlement or at a proceeding. Learn more about hiring a lawyer on a contingent fee basis.
Articles about motor vehicle accidents
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