An action is typically commenced by a plaintiff filing a Notice of Action with Statement of Claim Attached, which is filed with the Court of Queen's Bench of New Brunswick by paying a fee and registering the claim with the Court. There are three divisions of Civil Court in New Brunswick; i) Trial division, which hears cases involving unlimited damage claims; ii) Simplified Procedure actions, (otherwise known as Rules of Court - Rule 79 actions), which involve consideration of claims up to $75,000 on an expedited timeline basis; and iii) Small Claims Court, which will consider claims up to $20,00.00.

The pleadings process in New Brunswick is almost identical to the process in Ontario. Once a Statement of Claim is issued, the plaintiff has 6 months to serve it on the defendant(s). A defendant that resides in New Brunswick must then serve and file its Statement of Defense within 20 days of being served with the Statement of Claim. A defendant can also file a Notice of Intent to Defend, which allows them an additional 10 days to file their Statement of Defence.

A defendant which resides elsewhere in Canada or the United States has 40 day to file and serve a Statement of Defence. A defendant that resides anywhere else has 60 days to file and serve a Statement of Defence. Thereafter, the plaintiff may then serve a Reply on the defendant within 10 days, which addresses any additional issues raised in the Statement of Defense. These documents collectively are called the 'pleadings'.

In New Brunswick's Civil Courts, jury trials are reserved only for actions involving libel, slander, breach of promise of marriage, malicious arrest, malicious prosecution or false imprisonment. In these instances, a party may serve on the parties and file with the Clerk of the Court a Jury Notice thereby requiring trial by jury. In effect, the vast majority of all civil trials in New Brunswick are heard by a single trial judge.