Have you suffered a traffic accident? This is the compensation that corresponds to you

If you have been the victim of a traffic accident, you have the right to receive compensation provided that in the eyes of the Law there is a negligent action or omission, the production of a specific damage and a causal relationship between the two.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
01 June 2022 Wednesday 00:13
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Have you suffered a traffic accident? This is the compensation that corresponds to you

If you have been the victim of a traffic accident, you have the right to receive compensation provided that in the eyes of the Law there is a negligent action or omission, the production of a specific damage and a causal relationship between the two. However, calculating this compensation is not easy and its amount can vary greatly depending on some factors such as current legislation, the scale applied and/or the legal advice of lawyers specialized in the subject received by the victim.

In this article we explain how compensation for traffic accidents is calculated and what you should take into account when claiming it.

The calculation of this compensation is based on the legal concept of "restitutium in integrum" which consists of returning the injured person to the situation prior to the accident. However, depending on the severity of the accident, it is not always possible for the affected person to recover the previous state of health and in these cases it is when they must be compensated for the consequences, aesthetic and economic damages and for all the damages caused by the accident.

The compensation received by the victim of a traffic accident depends on the type of damage suffered and its duration. To calculate the amount to be received by those affected by temporary disability or healing time and by permanent disability or sequelae, the scales published in the Official State Gazette must be taken as a reference. These are the legal system to assess the damages caused and their objective is to individualize the compensation according to the circumstances of each specific case.

These tables are updated annually and determine the daily amount to be paid based on the severity of the damage. In 2022 the scale has increased by 2.5% compared to the previous year:

Something important to bear in mind is that the table of scales that must be consulted to calculate the compensation is that of the year in which the stabilization of the injuries occurs, not that of the year in which the accident takes place. This means that, if someone suffers an accident in November 2021 and is off work for 4 months, the scale that must be applied is that of the year 2022.

Despite the existence of these scales, sometimes insurance companies cannot agree on the amount to be compensated and end up reaching agreements that do not always conform to this guide.

The Law of Civil Responsibility and Insurance in the Circulation of Motor Vehicles determines when the victim of the accident deserves compensation. In this sense, it contemplates two types of losses:

In both cases, the person responsible for paying for the damages is the insurance company of the responsible driver, even when the accident was due to fortuitous causes that have nothing to do with malpractice. For this reason, the request for claims for a traffic accident must always be processed with the insurance company of the responsible driver.

However, it is not the insurers who decide the amounts of the compensation, since if this were the case, conflicts of interest could arise that could harm the injured party. To make this calculation, it is necessary the intervention of lawyers specialized in traffic accident claims who have the collaboration of independent medical experts to assess the injuries objectively.