How to estimate the priceless? Each tragedy on the road conceals its share of suffering, inscribed both in the flesh and in the soul of the victims. Broken lives, amputated limbs, deceased loved ones, psychic traumas that will sometimes only be extinguished with the last breath of those who support them. And yet, all of this will one day have to be quantified in euros. A perilous exercise, subject of negotiations of carpet merchants between insurers and lawyers. In view of the accident caused by comedian Pierre Palmade, 20 minutes interviewed two specialists in traffic law and victim compensation.
Strictly speaking, there is no scale of compensation for victims of road accidents which would quantify the loss of a limb at so much, paralysis at so much, death at so much. However, there is still “a guide to quantify the damage according to different positions, such as physical, psychological suffering, loss of earnings or sexual damage”, explains master Antoine Regley, lawyer for road victims at Lille. For example, according to this guide given as an indication by Victim Compensation Assistance Association, aesthetic damage can be calculated between 1,500 and more than 30,000 euros. Sexual damage to 15,000 euros. The death of a spouse or a child, between 20,000 and 30,000 euros.
“Insurers are trying to get out of it at a lower cost”
For master Sandra Bellier, road traffic lawyer in Lyon, “the principle is that of full compensation for damages in French law”, even if, “amicably, the insurance companies always try to get out of it at a lower cost if the file does not is not built properly”. “We must be wary of offers from insurance companies, the sums of which may seem significant to laymen but which do not in reality provide fair compensation for the damage suffered”, she assures us. “We can also try to impute to the victims a share of responsibility which lowers the amount of compensation”, adds Master Regley. He had the case for one of his clients, a cyclist hit by a car who had both legs amputated. “The opposing party tried to play the fact that he had alcohol in his blood when it is completely illegal,” he gets carried away. And if this file is not closed, the cyclist has nevertheless already pocketed 550,000 euros in provisional compensation.
The fact that nothing is written makes each file unique and can lead to very unequal compensation. “We quantify the compensation according to the impact of the accident on the life of the victim”, continues master Bellier. This is the case of one of his clients, a very high-level cellist, who has lost the use of an arm and, consequently, will no longer be able to exercise his profession. “His damage will not be the same as someone who does not use his arm intensely in his work”, estimates the lawyer, some of whose clients have been compensated to the tune of more than one million euros. euros.
28,000 euros for the loss of his son
Even more difficult to determine than bodily injury is moral injury. It is in this category that the loss of a loved one, a spouse or a child falls. For the death of her 22-year-old son in a road accident, a client of Maître Regley received a check for 28,000 euros. “It’s like throwing yellow coins in his face,” he protests. What is the price for the loss of the dearest being? asks the lawyer. What about an accident victim who loses the baby she is pregnant with, as is the case in the drama involving Pierre Palmade? “There is case law which recognizes, in certain cases, the moral prejudice of the parents when an unborn child dies in an accident”, affirms master Bellier. Except that it remains quite rare and that it was cases of well advanced pregnancies. The question arises as to when life begins. “This should settle with time and the bioethical laws that distinguish the embryo and the unborn child. A distinction that seems fairer than that of a child ”viable or not””, she specifies.
In the current state of the law, we are not there yet. “For this case, we will have to wait for the result of the child’s autopsy and find out whether he breathed or not. This will determine whether the mother can claim the compensation provided for relatives of victims of manslaughter, ”explains Antoine Regley. If the fetus was not considered viable, “the mother will only be entitled to her own psychological harm,” he adds. However, the difference will only come down to a few tens of thousands of euros. “When you give 25,000 euros to a mother who loses her child, who are you kidding? “, and” even if no sum brings back the child that we lose, a sum of 6 figures is a kind of recognition of the pain of the parents”, insists the lawyer from Lille.