Compensation for Injuries Sustained in a Road Traffic Accident

Compensation for Injuries Sustained in a Road Traffic Accident

If you have been injured in a road traffic accident, the State, acting through the prosecution service, will initiate criminal proceedings. If you suffered injuries and underwent surgery as a result of the accident, you may be entitled to compensation from the insurance company with which compulsory Motor Third Party Liability insurance was taken out for the vehicle being driven at the time of the accident. The prosecution service should open pre-trial proceedings in which evidence of the driver’s fault is collected. That evidence may subsequently be used in civil proceedings concerning the financial value of the pecuniary damage you sustained and the pain and suffering you endured, which constitute non-pecuniary damage.

The pre-trial proceedings may conclude with several different acts. The prosecutor may terminate or suspend the criminal proceedings, propose an agreement between the driver who caused the accident and the prosecution service, or submit to the court a proposal that the driver be released from criminal liability and an administrative penalty be imposed. The final and most favourable possibility for you would be for the prosecutor to file an indictment. This would mean that sufficient evidence has been collected regarding the perpetrator and their fault in committing the act. If it turns out that the perpetrator is incapable of bearing criminal liability, the pre-trial proceedings will probably end with a prosecutor’s decree terminating the criminal proceedings altogether, while nevertheless establishing the existence of fault. One example is a driver who, after the incident, developed a temporary or lasting disorder of consciousness and therefore cannot be convicted by a criminal court or, accordingly, have a sentence imposed on them. This does not change the fact that the driver is at fault and that the fault has been established by an act of a public authority, namely the prosecution service. The termination decree may serve as a basis for bringing civil proceedings which, if the claim is successfully pursued, may result in an award of monetary compensation for the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage sustained. Article 300 of the Code of Civil Procedure indeed provides that only a final criminal judgment is binding on the civil court. Accordingly, after a claim for compensation is brought, where such a judgment exists, it will not be necessary to prove again the circumstances of the incident and the perpetrator’s fault. A termination decree that contains a finding on fault may nevertheless be used in the civil proceedings and may facilitate proof that the compensation claim is well founded. It is also possible to request that documents and acts collected or issued during the pre-trial proceedings be added to the civil case. The civil court should not refuse such a request, because admitting them would promote both procedural economy and the full and comprehensive establishment of the objective truth, one of the aims of judicial proceedings and the administration of justice.