Pain and suffering claims in Alberta can be settled for as little as just a few thousand dollars to several hundred thousand dollars. The number all depends on several things: the type of event that gave rise to your injury; the nature of your injuries; the complexity and length of your recovery process; and what types of losses you suffered that you can prove; and more.
To give you a baseline idea however, if your injury was not “minor”, an “average” personal injury file in Edmonton and in all of Alberta might settle for anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000. Note that recovery of this amount is never guaranteed, and it is best to discuss your individual claim with an experienced personal injury lawyer who can properly assess the merits of your claim and provide you with the advice for how to best advance it and what you might expect in terms of hard numbers.
Can you even advance a claim in the first place?
To even be able to advance a claim in the first place, you need to be able to prove that the other party’s negligence or wrongdoing caused you your losses. If it cannot be proven that the other party was negligent or that they did anything wrong in the process that led to your injuries, then you likely cannot advance a claim for compensation at all.
What elements go into a personal injury settlement?
The main driving factor that drives the dollar figure up in someone’s settlement is the “pain and suffering” category of damages – it’s also commonly referred to as “general damages”. This is a type of loss that is used to compensate someone for the extent of pain, injury, and inconvenience they experienced as a direct result of their accident injuries as well as the time it took them to treat and recover from them.
However, in addition to the “general damages/pain and suffering” category, there are other categories of losses you can claim for, depending on the evidence you have to support each one. These could include:
- Loss of income – for time off work while you recovered;
- Loss of income earning capacity – if your injuries will permanently impact your ability to work and earn income;
- Future cost of care – if your injuries will require further treatment for the continued foreseeable future after your file settles;
- Loss of housekeeping capacity – for your lessened ability to keep up with chores, groceries, and other activities of daily living while you recovered;
- Specials – out-of-pocket costs for items or treatment for the accident that were not already reimbursed to you;
- and more.
“Minor injuries”: the difference between a car accident injury versus a slip-and-fall injury, or other types of personal injuries
There is an important difference between car accident injuries versus other types of personal injury claims. For a car accident injury, you can still claim for all of the categories of types of losses we discussed above, however, the “pain and suffering/general damages” category might be limited based on one of our provincial “statutes” (statutes are documents that set out the controlling rules in a particular area of law in a province).
If your car accident injury falls within the legal definition of a “minor injury”, then your claim might be capped at $6,061 for accidents that occurred in 2024. For injuries that occurred in other years, please see the Superintendent of Insurance’s Interpretation Bulletin that sets out the calculation for other years – as this “minor injury” amount changes slightly from year to year.
This “minor injury cap” applies only to car accident injuries – it does not apply if your injury was a result of a slip-and-fall or other type of personal injury claim.
To read more about what a minor injury is defined as, please see the Minor Injury Regulation.
We also encourage you to contact our experienced personal injury lawyers at Moustarah & Company, who can advise you what you might expect to receive in compensation given how your injuries classify as well as your circumstances.