Legal implications of road accidents

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Legal implications of road accidents

Road traffic accidents usually carry legal consequences in proportion to the severity of the accident. Nearly all common law jurisdictions impose some kind of requirement that parties involved in a collision must stop at the scene, and exchange insurance or identification information or contact the police. People failing to this are committing a criminal offence most commonly known as a hit and run. However, most claims are settled without recourse to law. In this case, assuming that both parties carry adequate insurance, the claim is often handled between the two insurers. There may be financial penalties involved, such as an excess or deductible payment and a loss of a no-claims bonus or higher future premiums.
Depending upon the circumstances, parties involved in an incident may face criminal liability, civil liability, or both. Usually, the state starts a criminal prosecution only if someone is severely injured or killed, or if one of the drivers involved was acting illegally or clearly grossly negligent or intoxicated or otherwise impaired at the time the accident occurred. Criminal charges might include driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, driving without due care (UK), assault with a deadly weapon (USA), manslaughter, or murder; penalties range from fines to jail time (USA) to prison time to death (where applicable). It is notable that the penalties for killing and injuring with motor vehicles are often very much less than for other actions with similar outcomes.
As for civil liability, in places where healthcare is mainly provided through private insurance, such as the USA, automobile accident personal injury lawsuits have become the most common type of tort. Because of pre-existing case law, the courts usually need to decide only the factual questions of who is at fault, and their percentage of fault, as well as how much must be paid out in damages to the injured plaintiff by the defendant's insurer.
For lesser offences civil action may result in fines or collecting points that invalidate the driver's licence, through a central government agency. Such complaints may be filed by a police officer, by other witnesses of an incident, or through remote enforcement such as CCTV or speed cameras. Some jurisdictions (notably US states) directly administer fines or suspend licenses imposed by civil or criminal authorities when a driver has violated the rules of the road and thus the terms of a driver's license. In some jurisdictions such administrative penalties may be imposed through quasi-criminal infractions; other jurisdictions do not recognise infractions and charge all violations, at a minimum, as misdemeanours or felonies.
Some argue that the effect of a loss or injury due to a crash can be equivalent to that of a victim of crime under criminal law. Several campaigning organisations that provide support mechanisms also seek out an equivalent status within their jurisdictions or draw attention to particular road safety issues and attitudes with the intention of introducing law reform (e.g. MADD).
If you have been injured in a road accident, whether as a driver, passenger, pedestrian or cyclist, you may have a Accident Compensation Claim against the driver responsible or even partly responsible for the accident. Vehicle users are required by law to have insurance and the Road Accident Claim is most likely to be dealt with by the responsible driver's insurance company. Even if there isn't a police prosecution, you may still have a Road Traffic Accident Claim. Even if the responsible driver is not insured you may still claim against the Motor Insurers Bureau, an organisation established to compensate the injured victims of uninsured and untraced drivers.
For more information about no win no fee accident claims and road traffic accident claims, please contact Claims for You.