ALBERTA PERSONAL INJURY AND MEDICAL
MALPRACTICE CLAIMS INFORMATION

We have prepared this web page to assist you to better understand the basic elements of your personal injury or medical malpractice claim in the Province of Alberta. Your rights to compensation outside of Alberta may well be quite different and accordingly we recommend that you consult with legal counsel in your area for claims arising outside of Alberta.

As a victim of another person's negligence, subject to recent amendments to Alberta's Insurance Act which relate to motor vehicle accident cases occurring on or after October 1, 2004, you are entitled to claim full compensation for all of your provable loss and damage from the person or persons who injured you. Typically, this compensation is paid by the insurance company of the person or persons who caused your injuries and consists of the following components:

PAIN AND SUFFERING

Subject to the recent Insurance Act amendments, you are entitled to claim what are known as "general damages" to compensate you for your pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and loss of function, whether temporary, long term or permanent.

A number of factors need to be taken into account to assess the amount of general damages that you are entitled to claim, including the following:

• The nature and extent of your injuries;
• How much treatment you require and how long you require that treatment for;
• The duration of your injuries;
• Whether you make a full recovery;
• The nature and extent of any long term or permanent problems;
• Any restrictions in your ability to work and/or perform your various activities of daily living;
• Court awards in similar cases.

While money cannot restore your health or erase your pain and suffering, it can improve the quality of your life - a quality of life diminished by your injuries. This is the essential justice in compensating you for your pain and suffering.

If you were injured in a minor vehicle accident and your injuries are deemed to be "minor" pursuant to the Alberta government's recent Insurance Act amendments, your claim for compensation for your pain and suffering will be limited to a maximum of $4,000.

PAST AND FUTURE LOSS OF INCOME OR PROFITS

The general rule is that you are entitled to claim compensation for all your loss of employment income and/or loss of profits since the accident and into the future.

If you were injured in a motor vehicle accident, income tax payable on your lost income and any disability benefits you received or are entitled to receive in connection with a policy of disability insurance or from a government run plan (even if you did not apply for it) will be deducted from your loss of income claim.

Calculating your loss of income claim may be as simple as taking your hourly rate of pay and multiplying it by the number of hours you missed from work (and, in the case of injuries arising out of an auto accident, deducting income tax payable and disability benefits received). Or, if you are unable to return to work at all, or to return to the kind of work you did prior to the accident, or if you return to work but have diminished capacity and/or if you lose opportunities for increased income and/or career advancement, it will be necessary to retain experts to calculate your loss of capacity and/or the amount of income you are likely to lose over your lifetime.

Depending on the facts of your case, this loss of income/loss of capacity can be quite significant and it is essential that appropriate steps be taken to quantify your claim or you could jeopardize your financial security and that of your family.

If you were self employed at the time of your injury, it will be necessary to establish what your profits (including amounts re-invested in your business) would have been for the time that you missed work and/or worked at reduced capacity and compare that to what your profits actually were. The difference will be your claim for loss of profits. It will also be necessary to establish how your injuries will impact upon future profits since any reduction in your capacity for work may well have a negative impact on the bottom line of your business well into the future. Again, experts will need to be retained to calculate your past and future loss of profits.

LOSS OF HOUSEKEEPING CAPACITY

You are also entitled to claim for your accident related inability, or reduced ability, to perform your normal tasks in and around your home. Once again, where appropriate, we commonly retain experts to assess the degree of lost capacity and to estimate the value of the loss in financial terms.

SPECIAL DAMAGES

You are entitled to claim reimbursement for all out of pocket expenses that you incur as a result of the accident. Typically, these expenses include past and future treatment expenses, personal care expenses, home renovation expenses, transportation expenses and any other past and future expense that you would not have incurred but for the accident.