Victims of road accidents
You have been seriously injured or you have lost a loved one in a car accident. How to deal with justice, insurance or the police while you live a difficult situation?
Traffic accidents are governed by the law of 5 July 1985, known as the Badinter Law (” law for the improvement of the situation of victims and the acceleration of compensation procedures “) which provides for a specific compensation path intended to establish a quick and full compensation of the victim according to his situation (driver, passenger, pedestrian, cyclist or other).
Victims of traffic accidents must obtain compensation for all their injuries , and the personal injury lawyer nyc is with the victim to help him get redress as soon as possible.
Damages can be bodily, economic or moral and should be compensated as soon as it is possible to determine them. The right of compensation, as soon as it is a serious accident, is a complex and constantly evolving matter.
The medical expertise , which must always be contradictory, is the key stage of the procedure, during which the close collaboration between the lawyer, the medical adviser and the victim proves preponderant for the establishment of reparable damages .
Compensation for damages is not fixed according to a pre-established scale , and each file must be carefully prepared and each loss identified, described and defended by your accident lawyer new york city.
Your lawyer, after having precisely quantified the various items of damage, and failing a negotiation leading to an agreement that gives you satisfaction with the insurance company, will seize the competent jurisdiction which will decide on the amount and the different requests made ; that is to say the importance of being well advised from the beginning and throughout this course.
- What is the compensation process for a traffic accident?
Initial stage :
Under the law of 5 July 1985, the legislator intended to force the insurer who is aware of an accident resulting in bodily injury to take a position quickly and indicate whether he intends to compensate the victim.
The law globally distinguishes two types of victims:
- Non-driver victims of a motorized land vehicle (passenger, pedestrian, cyclist) for which the right to compensation is recognized automatically, unless inexcusable or intentional fault.
- Conducting victims (motorist, motorcyclist) to whom the insurer may exclude or limit the right to compensation by proving that a fault has been committed.
The insurer will quickly make contact with the victim and obtain the police investigation.
It is therefore necessary that the victim at this stage can defend himself and be advised by his lawyer and request the police investigation report, to position himself on the offer of insurance.
The insurer then has the obligation to offer a provision and will ask the victim to meet the doctor mandated by the insurance company, often mistakenly called “expert doctor”, while defending the interests of the insurance company. insurance.
If the victim has not done so earlier, it is at this stage that it requires the services of a specialized lawyer and a medical consultant to assist with the medical examination and to evaluate the best interests of the victim. as well as the entirety of his bodily injury.
The risk is that the victim, not or badly defended, accepts without knowledge of his rights, an offer of compensation that would be largely insufficient on the basis of the adverse conclusions of the insurance doctor.
This procedure, which is intended to better and quickly compensate the victims of traffic accidents, thus contains many pitfalls that will be flushed out by the lawyers and doctors whose victim will surround himself.
Procedural phase:
If the insurance company has not followed this procedure which is imposed on it by the insurance code , the victim can seize the District Court competent jurisdiction territorially to compel the insurer to take care of the damage resulting from the accident whose insured has made himself responsible.
This procedure is also necessary when the parties can not agree on medical and numerical evaluations.
However, advised by her lawyer, the victim must know that she has the possibility to refuse the insufficient offer or to react to the absence of offer by seizing the competent court, the law providing in this respect sanctions , against the insurer.
Compensation funds that compensate victims of accidents for which the person in charge is unknown or not insured, also know a specific procedure that can take an amicable or judicial way.
Special case: Accident with a vehicle without insurance and accident abroad
When the author of the accident is not known or is not insured, the Guarantee Fund for Compulsory Insurance Damage occurs in place of the insurer.
Moreover, it should be known that road accidents, occurring abroad, can be indemnified under certain conditions in France from the same compensation fund.
