Insurance Arbitration and Compensation Claims regarding Car Accidents in Turkey
Author: Mr. Gökhan Cindemir , Phd Candidate , Senior Partner Lawyer cindemir@cindemir.av.tr
In case of a car accident that you confronted in Turkey, our first advice is to get a accident report from the police. If you are unable to request it, the lawyer must figure out where the accident is occurred and obtain the accident report. The report will determine the negligence level of the accident. Negligence is very important for determination of compensation amount. Accordingly, it does not necessarily mean that victim of a car accident will be entitled to a compensation.
One of the most important factors playing as a role is negligence and negligence level in the traffic accident. Second important factor is the damage of the victim stemmed from the accident. If damage is an injury degree of disablement must be documented. Hospital report is not enough to prove the injury degree, they only demonstrate history of the operations or treatment.
However, injury assessment is required to claim under law. Report acquired from forensic hospital is considered as a sole evidence proving the degree of injury. In main big cities of Turkey, private forensic hospitals exist. Hospital expense for said assessment is around 300- 500 USD. Forensic hospital reports concerning degree of injury can be also obtained from the country where victim resides. However, forensic hospital reports given from another country must contain degree of injury as a percentage. The greater part of foreign forensic hospitals do not state degree of injury as a percentage. Because of this fact, we strongly advice victims to apply Turkish forensic hospitals.
The damage can be moral and material. It must be noted that in Turkey all vehicles must have compulsory traffic insurance. Material and moral compensation can be claimed against defacer. However, the defacer may not have enough asset and expected compensation by the victim might be unpaid. Hence victims can apply to the insurance company of defacer to be compensated.
In that case, insurance company must compensate the damage based on the documents provided by victim. After application generally insurance companies reject to pay the compensation. In that case, there are two authorities to apply 1. Courts 2. Insurance Arbitration. Court option is explained here : https://www.cindemirlaw.com/accidents-on-the-road-in-turkey-car-crashes-traffic-accidents/
2. Insurance arbitration. Arbitration is quick and efficient way to recover damages. Disadvantage of insurance arbitration is moral compensation. Moral compensation cannot be requested from Insurance company as a matter of fact. Separately tort case must be filed against the defacer at the court.
Insurance arbitration process is very fast as compared to a court case. Court case may take minimum 1 – maximum 3 years. In case that victim cannot also provide forensic report containing percentage of injury degree, opening a court case is also sensible. If all documents are ready, insurance arbitration decides within 4 months.
Author :
Gökhan Cindemir