Victim of a traffic accident, you find yourself in a state of shock, psychologically impaired, your autonomy is reduced and you suffer from injuries and/or a physical handicap.
By using the clauses of the traffic accident law to its advantage (without violating them), your insurer would try to compensate you at a minimum.
Your chances and your right to obtain substantial compensation will be better preserved if you decide to contact an expert traffic accident lawyer. A lawyer who specialized in personal accidental injury knows how to make your rights acknowledged.
To convince you of the usefulness of choosing a lawyer, we are going to present to you:
- The framework law on compensation for victims of traffic accidents
- The compensation mechanisms offered by your insurer
- The contribution of an expert lawyer in the Highway Code and in bodily injury
- A concrete example to support all these remarks.
Contents
What is a legal proceeding in a motor traffic accident?
Any victim of a car accident must be compensated according to the clauses, and the soul, of the car accident law. This compensation must in principle recognize all the damages: injuries, disability, temporary damages, permanent damages, and financial damages.
In the occurrence of a traffic accident, your insurance might offer you an inadequate amount of compensation for your damages. Only, it will be established according to your own estimate of the damages that you have suffered and lost in the accident.
On the other hand, if you decide to find a lawyer accustomed to the intricacies of arrangements between insurance companies, he will show you, with supporting evidence, how he was able to multiply by three the amount of the initial compensation offered to its customers who are victims of road accidents.
Just like your insurer, your lawyer will act within the framework of the car accident law. The difference is that he will exploit his clauses to obtain the highest compensation in the context of a legal or amicable procedure, while your insurer will try to convince you that his initial proposal is fair and that it benefits you.
What is the Traffic accident law?
The accident system is the reference text in terms of compensation for victims of a traffic accident.
In the context of this law the Insurance Code, a traffic accident is an “accident in which a motorized land vehicle and its trailers or semi-trailers are involved, exception of railways and trams running on their own tracks”.
Is considered a victim by this law any person who has suffered damage (pedestrian, cyclist, rider, or passenger) with the exception of the driver.
Concerning the compensation of this specifies that it can be limited or excluded according to his presumed responsibility in the occurrence of the accident (violation of the highway code committed). At this level, if you feel the need to seek a lawyer in expert in traffic accidents, you can visit norrisinjurylawyers.com.
The accident law considers victims of a road accident who are over 70 years old or even under 16 as well as those more than 80% disabled as ” super privileged victims ”: in all cases figure, they are compensated.
Terms of compensation under the accident law
The traffic accident law aims to guarantee all road accident victims 100% compensation. To benefit from compensation within the framework of the accident law process, the victims are obliged to declare their accident in writing within 5 working days. The essential information to be transmitted includes:
- the name of the victim or victims
- the circumstances, date, and place of the accident
- contact details and identities of potential witnesses
- The number of the insurance contract.
Following this declaration, the insurer first sends a questionnaire to the victims of the accident asking them to provide:
- Bodily injury suffered
- Defendants
- Third-party payers are called upon to pay benefits (employers, mutual insurance companies, etc.)
Then comes the stage of assessing responsibilities. The report drawn up by the police or gendarmerie services is the centerpiece of this assessment. In this regard, it is useless to tell you, if you are the victim of a road accident, that the insurer of the opposing party will try to prove that you have committed a fault. Thus done, he will limit the amount of your compensation or obtain a total exclusion: hiring a lawyer to analyze and possibly contest this report is crucial for the continuation of the legal procedure or the mutual agreement procedure.
After the assessment of liability, comes an even more complicated stage at the procedural level: the assessment of bodily injury and the amount of compensation. To carry it out, insurers rely either on a medical opinion from their regular doctor (in the event of slight damage) or on medical expertise (for major damage).
There are 3 types of medical expertise:
- The Accident Law expertise: It is triggered by the insurer and carried out by its own doctor.
- The adversarial amicable expertise: It is carried out by two doctors, each designated by a party.
- Judicial expertise: It is assigned to an independent judicial expert following a court decision. Forensic expertise is by far the favorite of road accident bodily injury lawyers because it is the most objective and complete.
Based on the medical expert report, the insurer makes a compensation proposal to the victim. The law requires that it must be communicated within a maximum period of 3 months after the claim for compensation and 8 months from the date of the accident. The victim has two options:
- Accept the offer which must then be settled within 45 days.
- Refuse it and go find a lawyer expert in road accidents to obtain better compensation.
Why use an expert car accident lawyer?
By deciding to use an expert lawyer in road accidents between two cars, you are entrusting your case to an expert who knows the intricacies of negotiating with insurers.
His role will first be to conduct amicable negotiations to optimize your compensation. If the insurer refuses to recognize all of your rights and to completely repair the damage suffered, it will then initiate legal proceedings.
Experience clearly shows that a damages lawyer always succeeds in increasing the amount of compensation initially proposed. The reason is very simple. It is independent of insurers and exclusively defends your interests.