Suing for people hurt in crashes, falls and by negligence (except road crashes in Quebec, where public insurance replaces lawsuits). Paid a share of the win, and only if there is a win.
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Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $124,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $63,000 at the lower end to about $223,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
7 to 8 years after high school, on the usual route.
$62,000 to $155,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$124,000
Lower end
$63,000
Upper end
$223,000
Job Bank's figures for all lawyers and Quebec notaries in Canada, 2023 to 2024, worked out as a year at 40 hours a week. Job Bank does not publish a separate figure for personal injury lawyers. Associates usually earn a salary plus a share of the fees on their files, and firm owners are paid from what the firm makes. Insurance defence lawyers, who act for the other side, are usually salaried.
A share of the settlement
The firm keeps a percentage of what the client wins. The client pays nothing if the case loses.
Ontario requires a standard written contingency agreement in plain language. As an example, on a $300,000 settlement a 30% fee would be $90,000 to the firm, before the lawyer's salary, staff and the cost of expert reports.
1 to 4 years
How long a serious injury case usually takes to settle. The firm gets paid nothing on it until then.
Firms also front the cost of medical reports and expert witnesses, which can run to tens of thousands of dollars on a big file. That is why new lawyers join established firms rather than going solo.
Roughly, all in
$62,000 to $155,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is three years of undergraduate study and three years at a cheaper Canadian law school, plus the LSAT (Law School Admission Test), applications, and the licensing exams and fees. The high end is four years of undergraduate study and law school at the most expensive faculties. There are no extra courses or exams for this field beyond the ordinary lawyer's licence. What the figures hide is that the firm you join has to teach you and fund your files, so where you land matters more than what you paid to qualify.
No extra courses or exams beyond the lawyer's licence. What you really need is a firm willing to teach you and to fund your files. Firms spend heavily on advertising to keep the cases coming.
Fee sharing
Associates at most injury firms get a percentage of the fees on files they settle, on top of salary.
Health and dental
Standard at mid-size and large injury firms.
Insurance defence side
Salary, benefits, and hours billed to insurance companies instead of waiting for a settlement.
No pension
Private firms rarely offer one.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Same licence as every lawyer. The specialty comes from courses, then the firm that hires you. These steps are for outside Quebec, which has its own route: tap Quebec route to add it.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
English, biology and anything that teaches you to argue on your feet.
Bachelor's degree
3 to 4 years
Kinesiology, nursing, psychology and political science all show up. Any subject works. Write the LSAT (law school admission test).
Law school (JD, juris doctor)
3 years
Take torts, insurance law, evidence, civil procedure and trial advocacy. Moot court helps.
Articling
About 1 year
8 to 10 months at an injury firm or an insurance defence firm, plus the barrister and solicitor licensing exams. Ontario's Law Practice Program is the alternative to articling.
Called to the bar
Ceremony
Junior associates run the smaller files, accident benefit claims and discoveries while learning from a senior lawyer.
Biology
You will read medical records, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) reports and surgeon's notes for a living.
English
Demand letters, mediation briefs and settlement offers.
Math
Lost income and future care costs are calculations, often over decades.
Drama or debate
Discoveries and mediations are performances.
Your provincial law society licenses you and moves the licence between provinces under the national mobility agreement. Personal injury gets extra attention from the regulator. Ontario has a mandatory standard contingency agreement, strict rules on advertising, and a cap on the referral fees lawyers can pay each other for passing on clients.
Plaintiff side
You act for the injured person. Paid a share of the win, so you pick cases carefully.
Insurance defence
You act for the insurance company. Paid hourly, steady salary, and you try to pay out less.
Switching
Lawyers move between the two. Knowing how the other side thinks is an advantage.
Same licence as every Quebec lawyer, but Quebec's public car insurance has replaced lawsuits for injuries in road accidents, so the work looks different here.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
Any stream. Quebec law faculties admit on your CEGEP (public college) grades, so strong marks start to count right after this.
Pre-university DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 years
A 2 year CEGEP (public college) program in any field. Social Science is a common choice. There is no LSAT (law school admission test) for Quebec law faculties.
Law degree (LL.B., Bachelor of Laws)
3 years
3 years of civil law at a Quebec faculty, or McGill's civil and common law degree. Take civil liability, insurance law, evidence and civil procedure.
École du Barreau (the Quebec bar school)
Several months
Three exams and clinic work, run by the Barreau du Québec (the Quebec bar). Tuition is $6,065 for 2026 to 2027.
6 month internship
6 months
Full time under a supervising lawyer, ideally at a firm that handles injury or insurance files.
Show French, then join the Barreau
A few weeks
A Quebec high school diploma from 1986 or later counts, even from an English school. Otherwise you pass the French exam of the OQLF (Office québécois de la langue française, the French language office).
The SAAQ (Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec, the public car insurer) pays Quebecers hurt in road accidents whether or not they caused the crash. In return, suing in civil court for those injuries is ruled out. Lawyers instead help clients contest SAAQ decisions: first a review, asked for within 60 days, then an appeal to the Administrative Tribunal of Québec within another 60 days. Injuries that are not from road accidents are outside this plan.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Catastrophic injury
Brain and spinal cord cases. The largest settlements and the longest fights.
Medical malpractice
Suing doctors and hospitals. Slow, expensive, and defended by a well-funded national body, so few firms do it.
Long-term disability claims
Suing insurers who cut off disability benefits. Quicker than crash cases.
Trial skill
Most cases settle, and a lawyer who can win at trial has more weight in settlement talks.
A health background
Nurses and kinesiologists who go to law school are prized at injury firms.
Empathy with a spine
Clients are in pain and scared. Insurers are not.
Marketing sense
Injury firms live on advertising and referrals.
Tribunal experience
Ontario's Licence Appeal Tribunal decides car accident benefit disputes. Many juniors start there.
In Ontario, licensed paralegals can handle car accident benefit claims at the Licence Appeal Tribunal and injury claims in Small Claims Court. That is a 2-year college diploma and a licensing exam rather than 7 years of university. Many paralegals work inside injury law firms, and some go on to law school later.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Morning: an examination for discovery, where you question the other driver under oath, or defend your client through the same thing. Afternoon: a stack of medical records, a call to an insurance adjuster about a settlement number, a new client intake about a fall in a parking lot. Mediation days run long. Trials are rare and consume everything for weeks.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
In 1978 the Supreme Court capped damages for pain and suffering at $100,000. Courts adjust the cap for inflation, so it is now several hundred thousand dollars, and it applies no matter how bad the injury. That is why the big money in Canadian injury cases is future care and lost income, not the injury itself.
If you are hurt in a car crash in Ontario, a deductible of $47,913 (in 2026) comes off pain-and-suffering awards under $159,709, and your injury has to pass a legal threshold before you can sue at all. Ontario injury lawyers spend careers arguing about that threshold.
Ontario gives you 2 years from an injury to start a lawsuit. If you slipped on snow or ice on private property, written notice is due within 60 days, and on city property within 10. Missing a deadline is the classic way an injury lawyer gets sued.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Lawyers first, then the rest of the field. See every career in law and public safety.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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