Road traffic injuries - the personal injury case from A to Z

If you are exposed to a personal injury in traffic, you may be entitled to compensation under the Motor Vehicle Liability Act.

Examples of injuries following a traffic accident include whiplash, head injuries, fractures, paraplegia, etc. Getting compensation for a traffic injury can be a challenging process for the person concerned. Below I will therefore briefly describe the process of a personal injury case from start to finish.
A personal injury case always starts with the personal injury being reported to the responsible insurance company and your own car insurance. This may be Gjensidige, Tryg, If, etc. It is therefore important that the claim form is completed as early and in as much detail as possible. If the circumstances of the fault have not yet been clarified, the personal injury must initially be reported to your own car insurance company. The insurance companies involved will clarify between themselves which company is responsible for the accident.

Common to all compensation cases is that the insurance company needs to establish what happened and what personal injuries the accident caused. At an early stage in the case, the insurance company will therefore ask the injured party to complete a basic authorisation form, which allows the company to obtain limited information from relevant bodies such as the police, emergency services, hospitals, GPs, NAV, etc.

If the injured party reports to the insurance company that the consequences of the injury persist, and this is confirmed by the information obtained, the insurance company will normally request an extended authorisation in order to map the liability in more detail. With the extended authorisation, the insurance company can obtain unedited medical records from relevant treatment centres for the time before and after the accident. What the insurance company wants to clarify at this point is whether the injured party's ailments arose immediately after the accident or whether the ailments are a continuation of previous health problems.

When 2-3 years have passed since the traffic accident and the injured party is still suffering from the effects of the injury, there is a high probability that the symptoms will persist and become chronic. At this point, most personal injuries have stabilised and it is time to determine the severity of the injury.

The insurance company will therefore take the initiative to obtain a specialist's report. The specialist will conduct a personal examination and interview with the injured party, as well as review the documentation obtained in order to assess the causal relationship between the accident and the injury, and determine the permanent injury-related medical disability based on the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health's disability table. The disability table specifies the physical and psychological consequences of the injury, and the medical disability is determined as a percentage on an objective basis without regard to the injured party's occupation, reduced ability to engage in gainful employment, leisure interests and the like.

The specialist's statement will largely form the basis for the handling of the rest of the personal injury case, including the calculation of the actual compensation amount.

The further proceedings consist of obtaining information to determine the size of the damage-related financial loss. The relevant compensation items that must be substantiated are as follows:

• Incurred and future loss of income, pension losses
• Incurred and future home acquisition losses
• Incurred and future additional expenses
• Tax disadvantage
• Compensation for loss of enjoyment of life (Ménerstatning)

In the event of very serious injuries, compensation may also be claimed for socio-medical measures and additional expenses for housing adaptation.

If agreement is reached on the scope of the compensation items, all that remains is for the injured party to accept the compensation offer before the case is finalised.

It is important to realise that such compensation cases can take a long time, often several years. This is because the body has to heal, the injured party has to undergo rehabilitation and hopefully return to work.

Clarification of this must take place before a personal injury case can be finalised.