Sample claim for damages for an accident: assistance from a lawyer

Compensation for moral damage in case of an accident

Any accident or conflict on the road is always a moral experience, a stressful situation, a nervous environment. The condition of drivers, pedestrians or car passengers will be even worse if harm is caused to health. In almost any situation, the law allows you to recover moral damages after an accident if the victim proves the infliction of physical and mental suffering. Read when compensation for moral damage is allowed after an accident, how to correctly calculate the amount of compensation, and who to file claims against.

What documents are submitted along with the statement of claim?

Information about the fact of the accident. It is obtained either at the scene of the accident itself or at the traffic police department. It contains basic information about the accident, as well as a preliminary conclusion about the culprit;
Resolution to hold the driver accountable. This paper can be obtained from the court during the trial itself. This paper will be useful to you if the trial is not yet over, and you want to receive moral compensation when sentencing the driver;
Court sentence. This document can also be obtained from the court itself. You will need it if you are going to demand compensation after the court has closed the case and identified the culprit in the accident;
A death certificate and a document confirming the fact of relationship (for example, a birth certificate or a marriage certificate. Usually these documents are always on hand. However, if for some reason you do not have them, then you can get copies from the registry office that issued you the originals .These documents will be required by the relatives of the victim in the event of his death;
Any medical certificates documenting the injury or disability received as a result of the accident. Anything will do. Expert opinions and discharge from the hospital at the end of inpatient treatment will be especially useful. You can take them at the medical institutions where you were treated or examined;
Receipts with the cost of future treatment of injuries received as a result of an accident. They are taken in the clinics where you will undergo treatment (you will undergo treatment, and do not plan to undergo treatment.

When can you recover moral damages after an accident?

Claims for compensation for moral damages in case of an accident are not covered by the MTPL program. This is the main difficulty for filing claims, since they cannot be indicated in the notification of an accident or in the insurance company’s statement. To compensate for moral damage, it is necessary to take into account the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, including the following rules:

moral harm is the moral and physical suffering suffered by a citizen;
these consequences can occur not only due to injuries or damage to health, but also due to a stressful situation, the characteristics of the body’s reaction to a nervous environment;
The culprit of the accident is obliged to compensate for moral damage, i.e. a cause-and-effect relationship between his actions and the resulting suffering must be proven.

Note!
The claim for compensation for moral damage after an accident is not included in insurance cases.
Therefore, it will have to be presented directly to the guilty person, in the form of claims or a statement of claim. In some cases, simultaneous recovery of property and moral damage is allowed if the defendant is the culprit of the accident. Immediately after the accident, the parties draw up a notification of the accident, including with the involvement of traffic police inspectors. There are no clauses in this document about causing moral damage. This fact is also not reflected in the administrative protocols that are drawn up on facts of traffic violations. This means that special methods of proof must be used to confirm moral damages.

You can demand compensation for physical and moral suffering after an accident in the following cases:

if the accident caused injuries and damage of varying severity (any harm to health always entails pain, which directly relates to moral damage);
if a person died in an accident (in this case, moral suffering is caused to the relatives and friends of the deceased);
if as a result of the collision the driver, passenger or pedestrian experienced fright, severe stress, or other emotional disturbance;
if mental and nervous diseases have developed as a result of an accident.

Important!

The easiest way to prove moral damages is in the case of injuries and other damage to health. To do this, it is enough to obtain a certificate from a doctor, documents based on the results of a medical examination, and an ITU conclusion on the determination of disability. However, the final amount of compensation will be influenced by the type of injury and the nature of moral suffering, since the degree of pain depends on the type of injury.

A number of evidence that will be useful when filing a claim for moral damages can be obtained at the scene of the accident. Be sure to save video recordings (if available) and information about witnesses to the incident. Since the burden of proof in such cases rests with the plaintiff, it is the victim who must submit all documents and information to the court.

What to do if the claim is not satisfied?

If the person responsible for the accident does not contact you within the time period specified in the claim, you can safely prepare documents to recover the damage caused in court. Preparation of a claim is the basis of a future statement of claim. Preparing a claim helps to correctly formulate requirements, prepare documents justifying costs, and assess the sufficiency of available information.

When drawing up a claim, be sure to indicate that you tried to resolve the dispute out of court, attach a copy of the claim and a document indicating that it was sent to the culprit. If the claim procedure is not mandatory, this will in any case be a big plus for the court.

USEFUL : for more information about filing a claim, watch the video and the link

How is compensation for moral damage sought?

The Civil Code of the Russian Federation does not provide precise instructions on the procedure for collecting moral damages. Therefore, the victim and the culprit of the accident can agree on a voluntary payment. The amount of compensation is determined by mutual agreement. To settle all disputes, you can draw up a receipt. It is advisable to indicate in it that the amount paid is compensation for moral damage caused, and the victim no longer has financial or other claims.

You can also send a written demand for compensation for moral damage to the culprit of the accident. Although the law does not require you to do this before going to court, this option can help avoid litigation. If the guilty person does not make contact or refuses to compensate for the harm, you need to file a lawsuit.

When filing a claim for moral damages after an accident, consider the following nuances:

the law does not contain clear rules for calculating and proving moral damage, since suffering is evaluative and subjective;
the claim must indicate the amount that the applicant considers sufficient to compensate for his suffering;
the defendant has the right to present his objections to the claim and the amount of compensation, and the final decision will be made by the court.

Legal advice!

When planning to file a claim for moral damages, study the judicial practice in similar cases. Typically, approximately equal amounts are recovered for disputes of the same type. Therefore, it is unreasonable to demand compensation of hundreds of thousands of rubles if, under similar circumstances, the court recovered several thousand in favor of other plaintiffs. It is better to consult an experienced lawyer about these points in order to demand a reasonable amount in court.

The defendant in a claim will always be the person responsible for the accident, i.e. the person directly driving the vehicle. If you do not have information about the driver, but do have information about the car (for example, registration numbers are visible in a photo or video from the scene of an accident), you can file an application against the owner. According to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the owner of the car is responsible for all consequences of the accident unless he proves that he was not driving at the time of the harm.

Is it possible to recover compensation for moral damage in an accident from an insurance company?

Trial

In cases where two parties cannot come to a common agreement on compensation for moral damage, the victim can file an application with the court . In addition to the generally accepted requirements, the claim must contain:

Details of the injured party and the defendant.
Details of the judicial authority.
List of documents to be attached to the application.

After an accident, an important point is to record not only the physical state of health, but also any negative mental components . Before filing a claim with the court, you must attach the following list of documents:

Protocol for conducting a thorough inspection after an accident.
If a person is charged under an administrative offense, a document confirming this circumstance will be required.
A doctor’s report, on the basis of which the extent of injuries received (if any) can be determined.
Certificates, doctor’s prescriptions for medications, any documents indicating a deterioration in physical or mental health as a result of a traffic accident not through the fault of the plaintiff.

Involving witnesses on your part in the trial also contributes to a speedy resolution of the dispute.

IMPORTANT! Be sure to indicate the number of pages of each attached document.

The amount of the claim should be determined by the victim. Material damage is compensated quite simply, based on the cost of car repairs or medicines.

The plaintiff and the lawyer determine the specific amount of payment and reasonably present it to the defendant . He, in turn, has every right to challenge the amount of the moral penalty, citing reasoned arguments in his defense.

How to calculate the amount of compensation for moral damage after an accident

When seeking compensation for moral damage, it is impossible to refer to any methods for calculating its amount. The legislation of the Russian Federation does not contain uniform rules for determining the degree of suffering. Obviously, moral damages from minor abrasions will be less than pain and suffering due to fractures and long-term treatment. All these nuances will be examined by the court when considering the claim.

The amount of compensation must be calculated by the plaintiff himself. To do this, you can refer to the following circumstances:

severity of the accident and injuries sustained;
duration of treatment, complexity of operations;
temporary or complete loss of ability to work;
age, other personal characteristics of the victim (for example, the courts will probably award a large amount if a pregnant woman lost her child after an accident).

In view of these peculiarities of recovery of moral damages, we recommend that you always seek help from lawyers. The support of a specialist will allow you to competently justify the amount of compensation and provide the necessary evidence.

Who is considered morally injured in an accident?

A victim during an accident is considered to be any person who has experienced certain suffering:

The driver who is not guilty of the accident is the injured party and has every right to receive material and moral compensation.
A passenger in a car during an accident is considered a casualty, regardless of whose car he was in at the time of the accident.
Pedestrians are crossing the road and are injured at the time of the collision.
Relatives or relatives of those killed in an accident.

All of the above persons have the right to receive compensation for moral damage.

The victim, when filing applications in court, can refer to such moral and physical suffering as:

An injury sustained during an accident causes constant or intermittent pain.
Temporary or permanent restriction in physical activity, inability to lead the lifestyle to which the plaintiff is accustomed.
Worry about an accident or damage to health.
Inability to continue working or further study.
Losing a loved one or loved one in an accident or being hit by a car.

ATTENTION! If the victim received a monetary payment for treatment, loss of work, or material compensation for injuries in an accident, he does not lose his legal right to file a lawsuit for compensation for moral damage.

Compensation amount

The most popular question among victims is how much can you get for moral damages? It is quite difficult to give an answer, since the very definition of moral damage is too vague and too many factors influence the amount of compensation. However, judicial practice shows the following values:

Compensation for minor damage - from 30 to 50 thousand rubles;
Compensation for average damage - from 50 to 200 thousand rubles;
Compensation for severe damage - from 200 to 500 thousand rubles;
Compensation for the death of a loved one - up to 1 million rubles.

What documents of the defendant affect the amount of compensation?

Certificate of income;
Certificate of the presence of children or disabled people under guardianship;
Certificate of availability (or absence) of property;
Certificate of need to rent housing;
Bank account statement (if there is no income certificate).

Moral damage of moderate severity

If a citizen has partially lost his ability to work (less than a third) or has had a persistent health disorder for a long time, he is considered to have received a moderate injury. The norm is enshrined in the Rules for determining the severity of harm to health, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of August 17, 2007 No. 522. For example, receiving fractures during a car collision or a collision with a pedestrian can be classified in this category.

Typically, treatment for moderate injuries is carried out in a hospital for at least several days. To qualify for compensation in the future, a citizen must prepare a package of documents. The following can be attached to the claim:

administrative offense protocol;
documents confirming the presence of health problems;
other documentation that may be useful (eyewitness accounts, receipts for payment for medications or treatment).

Additionally, you can obtain a copy of your medical history and anamnesis.

All of the above papers can be submitted to the court as evidence by attaching them to the claim.

When figuring out what amount of moral damage can be charged for harm to health of moderate severity, you need to take into account that its value is individual in each specific case. On average, a victim can count on compensation in the amount of 20,000-50,000 rubles.