Dear readers,
In respect of traffic accident claims, every car owner in Hong Kong has to purchase third-party insurance for their vehicles. If the vehicle does not have effective third-party insurance coverage, it is illegal and the owner and the driver have the opportunity to be imprisoned. In addition, it is very likely that they have to compensate those injured or those died in the traffic accident caused by your vehicle.
Therefore, if you encounter a traffic accident, property damage and / or physical injury or even death, you or the deceased's immediate family members must report the accident to the police, so as to maximize the protection of your claim rights. Of course, there are some minor accidents, some car owners or drivers will handle it privately. However, this site does not think that this is an ideal practice, and this article will not discuss in this direction.
In addition, if you encounter a traffic accident causing financial burden on you, you can apply for some emergency financial assistance immediately from the Social Welfare Department for Traffic Accident Victims Assistance Scheme. However, the amount of assistance is limited, and the purpose is to help the traffic accident injured persons for their urgent need.
Therefore, a person injured in a traffic accident or immediate family members of the deceased who died in a traffic accident may claim compensation for personal injury against any person who causes the traffic accident negligently, as well as the car owner, in order to obtain reasonable compensation. However, if you obtain the compensation from personal injury claim, you will need to return the emergency assistance fund received from the Social Welfare Department’s Traffic Accident Victims Assistance Program.
Normally, like employees’ compensation claims, the insurance company will take the initiative to contact the injured person or the immediate family members of the deceased for compensation. However, normally, the insurance company will offer compensation amount lower than the amount they could claim. If the injured persons or the immediate family members of the deceased do not know the relevant laws and compensation precedents, they will accept such low compensation amount.
Sometimes, some traffic accident victims or the immediate family members of the deceased who died in the traffic accident feel that the injured or the deceased are partly responsible for the traffic accident, which dispels the intention of initiating personal injury claim. In fact, even if the injured person or the deceased may have to bear partial responsibility in the traffic accident, those persons who causes the traffic accident negligently still have to bear a certain degree of liability.
I have an experience in handling a traffic accident claim case where there were witnesses saw the deceased who died in the traffic accident, to find the badminton that fell from the motorcycle he was driving, stopped the motorcycle in the road, and then a minibus failed to apply brake in time, causing traffic accidents. With my analysis of the case and the background of the deceased, the wife of the deceased finally got the personal injury compensation for about HK$1,000,000.
Therefore, if the readers injured in a traffic accident or being a immediate family member of the deceased who died in a traffic accident, or encounter property damage in a traffic accident, you should immediately find a suitable lawyer to follow up to strive for the maximum compensation for you, so that you can concentrate on rehabilitation and recovery. If the readers are concerned about legal fees, you can consider applying for legal aid.
A kind reminder: the limitation period for initiating personal injury claim relating to traffic accident is within 3 years from the date of accident. Therefore, if you injured in a traffic accident or being a immediate family member of the deceased who died in a traffic accident, you should act immediately and feel free to contact a suitable lawyer to act for you, such as our Ms Emily Au.
If you need any legal services, please contact our Ms Emily Au (a professional lawyer) directly.