File a lawsuit against the culprit of an accident for damages: when necessary, procedure, documents, sample claim

In order to properly sue the person responsible for the accident for compensation for damages and not be afraid of the application being rejected, first of all, you will need to competently draw up a claim. Additionally, the necessary documentation must be prepared to prove the defendant’s guilt and certify the need to pay compensation. The court will accept the request only if there are grounds, which may include the absence of a compulsory motor liability insurance policy from the culprit, the inability of the insurance company to compensate for the damage in full, and other cases.

When is it worth filing a lawsuit against the person responsible for the accident?

First of all, the victim must understand that it is not always possible to file a claim against the driver who is guilty of an accident on the road. That is, of course, it is not forbidden to go to court, but the case may not proceed due to the lack of worthy grounds.

First, it’s worth finding out whether the culprit has valid MTPL insurance, since it is this policy that covers both material and physical harm caused to the victim. If the offender is insured, the compensation payment is provided directly by his insurer after an examination.

It is worth taking into account the current insurance limits. Currently, the maximum payment amount under a car insurance policy is:

400 thousand rubles for cases where only the property of citizens was damaged, in particular, vehicles;
500 thousand rubles if harm was caused to human health, and the degree of such harm is characterized as moderate or severe.

If the calculation of the cost of damage shows that the insured amount is sufficient to compensate for losses, the victim receives payments either in cash or in kind (repair work to eliminate damage to the car). But if the damage exceeds the limit provided for by the MTPL policy, the culprit must make up for the lack of funds. According to paragraph 1079 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the violator is obliged to pay compensation to the injured citizen in full . This fact is also confirmed by Article 1064 on the general grounds for compensation for harm.

And this is where it may be necessary to go to court, since it is not always possible to reach an agreement with the violator peacefully. In most cases, car owners who are at fault for an accident prefer to evade the obligation to compensate the victim for harm. Accordingly, the remaining amount of compensation can only be claimed through the court. This applies to both road accidents that resulted in damage to the car, and accidents in which the health of citizens was damaged.

It is also possible to file a claim under the following circumstances:

the culprit does not have mandatory insurance or the policy period has expired and the car owner has not yet renewed it (a fake policy is also invalid);
if there are three or more victims (as a rule, in this case there is not enough insurance and each of the victims has the right to recover the missing amount through the court);
if harm has been caused to a citizen’s health and the amount of the insurance limit is not able to cover it (treatment and medical services are compensated);
the victim was performing work duties (you can request compensation for benefits lost during an accident in the form of income);
the damage to the car was not caused while driving, for example, the car was scratched in the parking lot when the doors were opened (such damage is not included in the list of insured events, so the damage is recovered directly from the culprit);
the insurance company went bankrupt or was liquidated;
the insurer refused to provide compensation or underestimated the cost of damage (the claim is filed against the insurance office).

Another case where the victim has the absolute right to appeal to the courts is compensation for moral damage . For example, if a close relative died in an accident or the victim received an injury that precludes further work or causes constant pain. This also includes insults, threats, and pressure from the perpetrator against the victim.

Compensation for moral damage

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The right to recover moral damage caused is stated in Article 1099 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Moral harm is considered to be both physical and moral torment of a person.

The statement of claim can explain the infliction of moral damage as follows: that as a result of the property damage caused (serious damage to the vehicle), the driver experienced mental suffering, which was expressed in the form of headaches, migraines, insomnia, cardiac arrhythmia, the appearance of disorders of the nervous system, etc.

As a result, he needed the services of a psychologist/psychiatrist or other specialists, purchasing expensive medications (for example, strong sleeping pills or psychotropic drugs), attending various preventive procedures (for example, acupuncture), etc.

For all this, the person needed money, which he did not have. Because of this, I had to take out a loan, which also caused additional moral suffering.

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Compensation for moral damage is carried out only in monetary form.

When calculating the amount of moral compensation that must be indicated in the claim, the following should be taken into account:

The amount of material damage caused;
Inconveniences resulting from a traffic accident;
The degree of harm caused to health;
Duration of the disability;
The need to change living conditions (work, place of residence, etc.) due to injuries and damage received in a road accident;
Other factors and circumstances that may affect the amount of damage caused.

Which court should I go to?

Filing a claim for compensation for damage, material, physical or moral, is submitted to the court at the place of registration of the guilty person. If the price of the application is less than 50 thousand rubles, the application is transferred to the justices of the peace. Otherwise, you must visit the district court.

The processing time for cases involving minor amounts takes no more than 30 days. If the price of the claim exceeds 50 thousand rubles, the period of proceedings may be 2 months or more. Do not forget that such issues have a statute of limitations - a claim should be filed within 3 years after the accident occurred, but no later.

Pre-trial proceedings

Before going to court with a claim for compensation for damages from the culprit of the accident, it is recommended to attempt to resolve the situation through a claim procedure. To do this, the injured party needs to write down the details of the guilty party (last name, first name, patronymic, residential address, contact phone number) in order to send him a package of documentation.

The claim petition shall contain the following information:

Details of the guilty and injured parties;
The amount of damage that the MTPL insurance company could not compensate for. For example, if the amount of damage exceeds the maximum insurance payment;

Info

For 2021, the maximum amount of payments under compulsory motor liability insurance is 400,000 rubles.

Requirement for terms and procedure for compensation of damages.

The applicant attaches to the completed claim:

Results of an independent assessment of the damage caused;
Photocopies of materials confirming additional expenses incurred (for example, to evacuate the car and its stay in the impound lot).

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Pre-trial settlement is a mandatory stage preceding going to court, without which a claim for damages simply will not be accepted for consideration.

Preparing to file a claim

Regardless of the case and the reasons on the basis of which compensation is supposed to be collected, filing a lawsuit against the culprit of the accident for compensation for damage requires preliminary action. First of all, it is important to try to resolve the issue amicably by sending a written complaint to the culprit. The paper must indicate the amount of compensation and the time frame for its payment.

If the culprit expresses disagreement, you should take a corresponding receipt from him. According to the rules, the launch of a judicial procedure occurs only after confirmation of the fact that attempts to resolve the issue peacefully took place.

Before going directly to court, you need to make sure that the accident was properly documented. If there is no evidence that the accident occurred at all (documents, protocol, certificates), the claim will be rejected. You will also need to collect other documents, the list of which will depend on the grounds of the claim. Additionally, an independent assessment of losses is carried out. For this purpose, you can use the services of private specialists, but only upon presentation of the appropriate permission and license to operate on their part. Based on the results of the procedure, a conclusion is drawn up, which is signed by the expert.

If you need compensation for health damage, you should make sure you have the following documents:

certificates from medical institutions;
receipts proving expenses for treatment, operations, medications and rehabilitation measures;
a certificate from the place of employment about the amount of income, if as a result of an accident the person lost part of his salary;
an extract from the card proving the fact of prescription of medications and procedures.

In addition, it is recommended to undergo additional medical examination in order to provide an expert doctor's opinion in court. In a word, the preparatory stage includes the collection of evidence.

Compensation for damage to health

If the paid insurance compensation does not cover the damage caused to the health of the driver injured in a traffic accident, he can recover it in court.

When calculating the amount of recovery, the following are taken into account:

Expenses incurred for rehabilitation (medicines, examinations in medical institutions, hospital stay, etc.);
Lost income as a result of being treated, which he could have earned if he had been healthy.

Receipts, credit card statements, and other payment documents must be proof of medical expenses incurred. Lost income from work can be confirmed by an accounting statement. Damage to health incurred must be confirmed by relevant certificates and extracts from medical institutions.

Contents of the claim

The default starting point in court cases is the statement of claim. It is allowed to draw up the paper in free form, however, the content of the claim must clearly reflect the essence of the request, as well as additional facts.

The following information will need to be covered:

full name of the court;
information about the plaintiff and defendant (address information, full name, contacts);
a detailed but not vague description of the circumstances of the accident, as well as the resulting harm;
a list of factors indicating the defendant’s guilt;
claims and claims of the plaintiff against the culprit of the accident;
amount of compensation and its detailed calculation;
an indication of the fact that there were attempts to pre-trial resolve the problem, which did not lead to positive results;
list of attachments - documents, protocol, certificates and other papers;
date of document preparation;
signature of the victim.

The text of the claim should not be overly emotional or include colloquial expressions. Information should be presented strictly on the merits of the issue.

statement of claim against the culprit of the accident

He who is guilty pays

Everyone knows that with the introduction of compulsory motor liability insurance, the obligation to pay for the damage incurred lies with the insurance company of the one who is at fault, or with “their” insurance organization (this is called direct compensation), if only vehicles that are insured under compulsory motor liability insurance were damaged. It would seem that everything is clear and simple. At the same time, there are often situations when it is necessary to present demands directly to the culprit of an accident:

when the insurance company did not fully satisfy the claims of the injured party. Thus, civil liability can be insured for an amount not exceeding 400,000 rubles: if the amount of costs for car repairs turns out to be greater, the difference must be recovered directly from the person responsible for the incident;
if the car was damaged in a parking lot, parking lot, that is, not while moving (the car was not in use, the driver was not driving it, and there was no other car that was moving and made a collision, but, let’s say, a person scratched the car with a nail). This is no longer an accident as such, but property damage;
when it is necessary to obtain payment for causing moral damage;
the insurance organization refused to pay (in whole or in part) and appealing such actions did not bring a positive result;
the insurance organization went bankrupt or was liquidated without making payment under a judicial act adopted in favor of the victim;
if the driver at fault for the accident does not have a concluded contract with any insurance company, or such contract is expired.

Property claims cannot always be made against the person driving. So, if the car is listed on the balance sheet of a certain organization, then this organization is obliged to compensate for losses (as a rule, victims demand compensation jointly from both the legal entity and the driver in order to avoid unnecessary proceedings with shifting the blame onto each other).

If a person has an accident while driving a vehicle on the basis of a power of attorney, a lease agreement, etc., then such driver will be the debtor, however, these circumstances must be reliably confirmed by the owner of the vehicle. A similar rule applies if the car was driven by a thief.

If the burden of guilt in the listed situations was borne by the owner, then he can subsequently make recourse claims against the citizen who committed the collision.

We invite you to read: What to do if, after withholding the debt, there is no subsistence level left for alimony

Documentation

The documentation package for filing a claim must contain the following documents (it is better if these are copies, but you should have the original documents with you, as well as at the court hearing):

the application itself (in the number of samples equal to how many people will take part in the process);
act on the occurrence of an insured event (requested from the insurance office);
certificate of accident from the traffic police;
a protocol drawn up by traffic police officers in the case of an administrative violation, as well as on the inspection of the accident scene;
notice of call not inspection;
opinion of an independent expert regarding the amount of damage;
papers from the insurance office, for example, a refusal to pay, a document on the amount of compensation paid;
payment documentation indicating expenses incurred as a result of an accident (including expenses for treatment, if we are talking about harm to health);
receipt of payment of the duty (at least 800 rubles).

Documentation and the claim may be submitted to the court office in person. In this case, you must have a copy of the application with you, on which the responsible employee will mark the acceptance of the papers. It is also possible to send the package by valuable mail. Another option is the services of a trusted person, who will generally carry out all actions for the injured citizen.

Collection of compensation from the culprit of a transport accident by applying to the judicial authorities is allowed only in a number of cases. In this case, the victim will need to prepare evidence of the fact that the damage was not covered and that an accident occurred at all. Typically, the consideration of cases on such claims is completed with a positive result, and compensation is paid to the victim in full or in part of the amount that he requested.

How to properly file a traffic accident

After the incident has occurred, it is imperative to call the traffic police. Regardless of what exactly happened, employees are required to examine the accident. If a driver drove his car into a pothole and damaged a wheel, the registration procedure will be similar to a regular road accident. Employees will fill out a lot of paperwork and describe the event.

IMPORTANT !!! It is necessary to carefully consider what exactly the traffic police officers will record. Every detail of the event must be recorded in the protocol. If the “culprit” of the event was a hole on the road, then it should be described and its dimensions recorded. If it is an open hatch, then the employees are required to write down in the document that there was no warning sign or the traffic light was not working. Every detail is important when filing an accident.

In addition to the inventory, it is worth taking photographs of a section of the road with a hole, without signs or with a switched off traffic light, depending on the current situation. You can use a regular phone for this. Any video or photo recording is important when it comes to an accident.

When the protocol is fully drawn up, the signature of two witnesses will be required. This could be passengers in the same car or people passing by. After this, you can ask the employees for information about the organization that dealt with this section of the road. The road service can be held accountable if the protocol was filled out correctly.

After receiving information regarding the culprit, the victim can file a lawsuit to obtain financial compensation.

How about in practice?

In reality, it is possible to recover from the culprit the entire amount specified in the claim - there are no limits on compensation, unlike litigation with an insurance company. At the same time, judicial practice in cases of compensation for damage allows us to conclude that most defendants simply cannot actually execute a court decision due to their financial situation (lack of work, numerous obligations, alimony, etc.).

In order for the plaintiff to receive the awarded amount, it is necessary to control the stage of enforcement proceedings, contact the bailiff, initiate the issue of establishing the main and additional income of the debtor, and report all known data about his financial situation and property. Sometimes it is possible to initiate legal proceedings for the division of marital property (if the debtor's property is registered in the name of the spouse).

It is much easier to enforce court decisions on compensation when the defendant is a government organization or commercial enterprise whose drivers cause the collision. In such cases, the amount determined for payment is quickly transferred to the victim’s account, often without initiating enforcement proceedings.

Claim procedure

Experts in road accident cases advise going through the pre-trial compensation procedure before filing a claim. At the same time, the legislation does not prohibit skipping the stage of filing a written demand and immediately after the occurrence of a road accident, going to the district court (we remind you that in the case of claims sent to the insurance company, the pre-trial procedure is considered mandatory).

the claim must be clear and understandable;
it should contain: a description of the accident that resulted in losses, a reasoned conclusion about the need for compensation (you should indicate why you intend to receive payment for the costs from this person);
circumstances for which no recovery is made from the insurance company;
do not allow demands in a rude, harsh, emotional form;
the letter must indicate damage (both obvious and hidden), as well as a document confirming their list;
the final amount you intend to receive: the cost of repair work, reduction in commodity value, evacuation costs, storage costs, appraisal costs, etc.

It is advisable to attach everything that the author of the claim refers to in copies (for greater persuasiveness and reliability, copies can be certified by a notary). It can be:

a document confirming the fact of the accident;
proof of vehicle ownership;
paid bills for the cost of repairs, evacuation, storage, etc.;
conclusion of the appraisal examination;
other documents.

The completed claim is sent to the culprit of the accident at his place of residence by registered mail with notification or with a valuable list of the contents. It is possible to deliver a letter via courier service - this issue is decided at the discretion of the sender.

Sample claim

Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich registration address: 100000 Moscow, st. Lenina, 1, apt. 1 Petrov Petr Petrovich, registration address: 200000 Moscow, st. Lenina, 2, apt. 2

PRE-TRIAL CLAIM TO THE culprit of an accident

Dear Ivan Ivanovich!