Legal protection in cases of compensation claims or for personal injury in road accidents

Once the victim has proved that he/she had nothing to do with the accident, compensation must be paid.
There are three ways for the victim to obtain compensation for the damage caused: out-of-court, civil court and criminal court.

Out-of-court compensation

When damage is caused only to vehicles, an out-of-court settlement is reached, i.e. when the parties reach an agreement and settle the case amicably.
This type of settlement is the simplest and quickest: insurance companies tend to promote this model mainly for time and cost savings. The parties have 30 days to agree, and a further 90 days to settle the dispute. If the parties fail to do so, the case is brought before a court of law.

Civil damages

When the parties fail to reach an agreement, the case must be brought before a judge. A civil court case is usually used when people use loopholes and excuses to avoid paying. The insurance company of the party who caused the damage does not reach an agreement because it knows that going to court is a lengthy and cumbersome process, which may discourage the insured parties who, in order to avoid this complicated and stressful process, are content to submit to inferior conditions.

Criminal compensation

If the accident involves criminal liability, the civil process is suspended, pending the verdict of the criminal court.
In this case, the injured party may be faced with two solutions: claiming compensation in the criminal proceedings or waiting until the end of the criminal proceedings and then filing a civil claim. In the first case, the injured party must choose a lawyer and file a civil claim against the insurance company, which is not obliged to participate in the trial. Once the criminal judge has reached a verdict, he will also decide on the compensation. However, there are cases in which the driver who caused the damage is not insured, or drives away without being recognised: this is why the Road Victims Guarantee Fund comes into play, financed by a share of the compulsory insurance premiums. This share is set by law by the various insurance companies on the basis of the contracts taken out by the insured. The guarantee fund reimburses damages on the basis of the maximum amounts established by law, and to claim compensation you have to fill in the appropriate form with all the necessary data and deliver it to Consap and the assignee company, which varies according to the group of regions. The form must be sent by a traceable system, i.e. by registered mail with return receipt or an email via a certified email domain.
The fund will only pay damages in these cases:

• Uninsured vehicle
• Unidentified vehicle
• Stolen vehicle
• Vehicle insured with a company in forced liquidation
• Foreign vehicles in circulation

At this point, the insurance company operating through the fund has 60 days to communicate its compensation offer. If the vehicle is insured but the company is in liquidation, the time required to make the offer is extended to 180 days.
The possibility of claiming reimbursement expires after 2 years in the case of injury and after 10 years in the case of death.