Traffic and Transport Accident Lawyers in Barcelona, Ibiza and Cádiz

Compensation must cover:

Temporary injuries

The amount corresponding to the days you were unable to work, carry out household tasks or your usual leisure activities. The daily rate depends on the associated moral harm and the effect on your quality of life.

After-effects (sequelae)

This compensates for the physical, anatomical, functional, sensory or aesthetic harm that remains once you are medically discharged. Its value is set out in official tables, based on points assigned to the after-effect and your age.

Moral harm associated with after-effects

This compensates for how much those after-effects affect your personal or working life. Its value falls between a set minimum and maximum.

Financial harm

The costs the accident has caused you, and will continue to cause you (travel, home help, therapies, prosthetics, home adaptation, etc.), known as consequential damage (daño emergente). It also includes the loss of earnings caused by a partial, total or absolute incapacity, known as loss of profit (lucro cesante), the value of which depends on your annual income before the accident and your age.

This compensation is paid to the family members or close relatives the law recognises as affected parties: the spouse, ascendants, descendants, siblings, and other close relatives — meaning people who lived with the deceased for the five years before the accident, provided there was a bond of friendship or family.

The compensation consists of:

Basic personal harm

A fixed amount, which varies depending on whether the affected party is the spouse, an ascendant, a descendant, a sibling or another close relative.

Specific personal harm

A fixed amount, or a percentage increase on the above amount, in specific situations the law considers to cause greater harm — for example, when the affected party also has a disability, or when the deceased was the only surviving parent.

Financial harm

The costs the death causes to the affected parties (travel, accommodation and similar expenses), and the loss of income, provided the affected parties can show they depended financially on the victim. The spouse and minor children receive this amount without needing to prove financial dependency; children up to the age of 30 are presumed to be financially dependent, while other affected parties and children over 30 must prove financial dependency. The amount is set out in official tables, based on the deceased's income and the age of the affected party.

In addition to the compensation set out in Law 35/2015, known as civil liability compensation, you may also be entitled to public benefits if the accident results in partial, total or absolute permanent incapacity, or severe disability requiring assistance.

The more serious an accident is, the easier it is to freeze up. But it is important to stay calm and be aware of everything happening around you, and to recall exactly what happened, trying to establish as clearly as possible what, in your view, caused the accident.

Call an ambulance if you cannot move, or go to a hospital's accident and emergency department as soon as possible so your physical condition can be assessed. Make sure the medical report records that your visit was due to a road traffic accident, along with all the injuries resulting from it. You should request and keep the medical reports from every visit you make, including a final rehabilitation report.

Report the accident to your insurer as soon as possible and give them all the information you have. They will normally handle the repair of your vehicle, unless they consider it a total write-off — meaning the cost of repair is higher than the value of the vehicle. In that case, they will offer you an amount for the vehicle, which is often well below its market value. Our advice is not to accept that amount. They may also offer to handle your claim and negotiate compensation with the other insurer. Our advice is not to accept that offer either.

If you receive a compensation offer from the responsible insurer before instructing a lawyer, our advice is never to accept it, however attractive it may seem. In practically every case, it is lower than what you could obtain.

You need to instruct a lawyer you know, with certainty, specialises in road traffic accidents, to advise you and defend your interests. Do not choose just any lawyer your circle happens to know, or your accountant.

Look for a lawyer who specialises in road traffic accident compensation claims and who does not work for your insurer, or for any other insurer, since their judgement tends to be shaped by insurers' own restrictive criteria, which can create a conflict with the defence of your case.

Your policy usually includes a legal expenses allowance that will reimburse some or all of the cost of an independent specialist lawyer of your choosing.