New Brunswick lawyers planning a constitutional challenge to the province's auto insurance law are hoping for an outcome similar to an Alberta ruling last week.

On Friday, Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice Neil Wittman found that government's 2004 insurance reforms violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by discriminating against car accident victims with minor injuries.

The Alberta regulation had imposed a $4,000 cap on soft-tissue injury claims, commonly related to whiplash.

"This case does not settle the debate in New Brunswick," said Saint John lawyer Dave O'Brien. "But the arguments advanced in a New Brunswick case, whichever one gets to the Court of Appeal first, will probably be similar to the ones advanced in Alberta."

There are currently 147 cases before the courts in New Brunswick challenging the constitutionality of a cap the province placed on soft-tissue injuries in 2003.

The cap, which includes pain and suffering awards, has cut payments to accident victims in the province by an estimated $300 million, but some have questioned whether the restrictions are legal.

In a decision in May 2007, Chief Justice Ernest Drapeau called New Brunswick's $2,500 minor injury cap "a terminological misuse of the adjective minor."

"It is clear that the phrase 'minor personal injury' has been defined in a manner that encompasses injuries that most people would consider 'serious,'" the decision said.

New Brunswick Justice Minister T.J. Burke has asked that —rather than deal with 147 separate constitutional cases — the issue be consolidated into two or three test cases to decide the matter.

Approximately 120 cases regarding the issue have been filed by the Cantini Law Group in Moncton.

Burke has warned that if the cap is eliminated, New Brunswickers should expect vehicle insurance premiums to increase by about $250.