Being involved in a road traffic accident can leave you with anything from whiplash and bruising to serious head and spinal injuries. If you have been involved in a horrific road accident, which was not your fault, then you may be entitled to a personal injury compensation claim. If you were a party travelling in a taxi or a bus then you may be entitled to a claim from an insurance company. These kinds of claims are commonly known as personal injury claims. The crux of the issue lies in claiming the compensation amount. One cannot overlook the emotional distress or psychological harm the victim has gone through; however, it boils down to the damages claimed and the gravity of the harm caused to the victim.
Action against the Perpetrator
According to UAE laws, road accidents causing personal injury will fall under tortious liability. The damages are calculated based solely on the direct or indirect connection between the doer’s act and the injury inflicted. The victim becomes entitled to damages/losses borne as a result of the accident, which may include damages to clothing, property, loss of earnings, and moral and psychological harm.
The harm caused by the perpetrator may fall under tort law because of a collision of vehicles and the court may rule compensation. It would be sufficient if the claimant establishes that the tortfeasor violated his legal obligation to take reasonable care, whether intentionally or not. The UAE laws are fairly straightforward when it comes to establishing harm and the link that caused damages to the victim.
In general, particularly with compensation cases, the claimant can ask for damages concerning:
- The expenses paid by him for the medical recovery.
- The maturity losses.
- Moral damages, subject to Article 293 of the Federal Civil Law No.5 of 1985.
The amount of compensation or damages varies on a case-by-case basis and it depends on factors such as:
- Income of the victim and the amount he/she spent on supporting his family;
- How old was he/she at the time of the accident;
- The limit of harm inflicted to the aggrieved person;
- The moral sufferings he/she faced;
- The amount he/she spent on the medical reports and treatment.
Tortious liability consists of three elements: fault, damage and link between the damage and fault. The link between the fault and damage by itself is not sufficient to create legal liability. There should be a correlation between the fault and damage. The link may be broken by an intervention of a foreign element such as a third party’s act, or victim’s contribution. Alternatively, a defendant will not be liable if the damage would, or could, on the balance of probabilities, have occurred anyway, regardless of his/her act.
Conclusion
In general, particularly with compensation cases, the laws of the UAE do not restrict the claimant to recover losses for injuries in a defined order. The court has discretionary power to award damages to the claimant for all/or every kind of injury sustained by him.
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Thank you. Dr. Hassan Elhais