We examine traffic incidents together with their fault, loss, insurance and liability dimensions in order to set out a workable course of action.
Accident and fault
Legal assessment of reports, expert findings and the allocation of fault.
Compensation
Claims relating to pecuniary loss, diminished value and personal injury.
Administrative acts
Applications concerning traffic fines and related administrative sanctions.
A traffic accident is a single event, but it leaves behind files that run independently of one another: the material damage to the vehicle, any bodily injury, the claim made to the insurer, and the criminal investigation into fault. All of them draw on the same accident report, yet they are subject to different calculations and different time limits.
The degree of fault is the starting point of every calculation
The amount of compensation depends less on the size of the loss than on how fault is apportioned. The initial assessment in the accident report is not conclusive; camera footage, contact marks on the vehicles, braking and skid distances and the position of the damage can all alter that apportionment. Once the degree of fault settles, the entire calculation is built upon it, so any objection must be made early.
Damage to a vehicle is not limited to the cost of repair
The diminished value a repaired vehicle suffers because of its recorded damage history is a separate head of loss from the repair cost and is calculated separately. That calculation rests on the difference between the vehicle's pre-loss market value and its post-repair value; both are estimates, and the inputs to those estimates can be contested. Because the firm has court-appointed automotive expertise in house, we examine this calculation on its technical side.
The principal matters we handle in this field:
- Assessment of the fault finding and the accident report
- Vehicle diminished value and material damage claims
- Bodily injury compensation in accidents involving injury
- Loss of support compensation in fatal accidents
- Determining the route through insurance claim, arbitration or court
Carrying out the technical finding and the legal assessment in the same place makes it clear from the outset which head of loss is to be claimed and in what amount.