Victim’s rights
Compensation for bodily injury
Compensation for bodily injury
Nadia HAMMAMI is committed to supporting you during a traumatic event in your life, your family, or that of your loved ones: road accidents, private life accidents, medical errors, physical or sexual assaults, etc.
She is at your service to assist you in all stages of the compensation process for your injuries of
all kinds: physical injury, psychological injury, aesthetic injury, financial injury, etc.
These different categories of injuries entitle you to full compensation, which victims are often unaware of.
When an insurance company offers you compensation, it is legitimate to wonder if you can trust them and if this offer is fair.
Your chances of being justly and fully compensated are better if your case is quickly entrusted to a victims’ lawyer.
Nadia HAMMAMI advises you at these different stages with the mission of obtaining fair and full compensation for your injuries:
- File preparation and evidence gathering;
- Assistance during medical examinations and counter-examinations;
- Evaluation of injuries;
- Negotiation with the insurance company;
- Administrative and legal procedures.
The victim of a traumatic event can obtain full compensation for their injuries. This principle is dictated in Article 1240 of the Civil Code:
“Any act of man, which causes harm to another, obliges the one by whose fault it occurred to repair it.”
This fundamental principle means that all damages suffered by the victim must be compensated:
- Material injury: destroyed property (vehicle, motorcycle, etc.), objects, etc. • Bodily injury: physical and aesthetic injury, endured suffering, sexual injury, loss of enjoyment in sports or leisure activities, etc.
- Economic injury: professional injury, loss of income, various expenses incurred by the victim, received assistance, etc.
This principle implies restoring the victim, as far as possible, to the situation they would have been in if the harmful act had not occurred, without resulting in the impoverishment or enrichment of the victim.
The amicable comprensation proposal from insurance companies and the strategy to adopt
In most cases, the different injuries of victims entitle them to full compensation, but the compensation process is too often exclusively managed by insurance companies.
Keep in mind that insurance companies are primarily commercial entities whose goal is to ensure their own financial interests, which generally leads them to propose reduced and amicable compensation for bodily injury claims, especially for traffic accident victims.
The only advantage of this process is that it seems faster than going to court, while case law is often more favorable to bodily injury victims and allows for full compensation of the damages suffered by the victim.
Therefore, the amicable process favored by the insurance company is absolutely not favorable to bodily injury victims.
It is crucial to be assisted by a lawyer to advise and represent you in front of an expert, an insurance company, or a court.
Nadia HAMMAMI informs you, advises you, negotiates, and defends you to obtain fair and full compensation.
Her experience allows you to have your victim status recognized and to obtain complete and quick compensation for your injuries.
The Reflexes to Adopt:
- Do not accept any medical examination without being assisted by a consulting physician chosen by the victim;
- Do not rush to accept a compensation proposal from your insurance company alone; • Seek a lawyer specialized in bodily injury compensation as soon as possible.
The different stages of the compensation process
Nadia HAMMAMI is by your side from the opening of your case to obtaining your compensation.
Stage 1: The Appointment at the Office
During this first appointment, Nadia HAMMAMI will listen to the circumstances of the traumatic event you were a victim of (road accident, assault, etc.) and will answer all your questions.
At the end of this appointment, an analysis of your case will be made to inform you about the responsibilities involved.
Stage 2: Preparing Your Case
Nadia HAMMAMI will then help you gather and prepare the necessary evidence to obtain full compensation for your injuries.
Preparing the case is crucial in the compensation process.
Nadia HAMMAMI’s experience will be extremely beneficial to you, as she is experienced in handling complex and extremely serious cases involving significant financial stakes (road accidents, disability, total or partial paralysis, irreversible aesthetic injury…) in calculating the different categories of injuries.
Your file is mainly composed of:
- The medical file (scans, MRIs, X-rays, surgical or consultation reports, SAMU liaison sheets, medical certificates, hospital admission and discharge summaries…), remember to request a full copy of your medical file.
- Proof of expenses related to the traumatic event (third-party assistance, psychological consultation fees, physiotherapy consultation fees, speech therapy consultation fees, prosthesis costs, wheelchair invoice…)
- Documents on professional impacts (work stoppages, fitness or unfitness opinions from occupational health, information on income losses, work hardship, dismissal for unfitness…)
- Documents on impacts on private, personal, and intimate life (family and friends’ attestations, sports or leisure activity attestations, purchase of an adapted vehicle or installation of adapted equipment at home…)
Stage 3: The Medical Examination
The medical examination is an essential and fundamental step in the compensation process.
If the injuries are severe and the sequelae potentially significant, Nadia HAMMAMI will request a medical examination.
It allows listing, evaluating, and quantifying the compensable injuries.
The injuries are largely quantified based on the expert’s medical report.
During this medical examination, Nadia HAMMAMI will involve one of the consulting physicians she has worked with for years, specialized in defending victims.
Indeed, over the years, Nadia HAMMAMI has surrounded herself with consulting physicians specialized and independent of insurance companies.
Nadia HAMMAMI systematically communicates all consultation requests to the analysis of one of the consulting physicians for victims with whom she collaborates to guarantee her clients a technical and precise analysis of their case.
She will assist you in preparing for the medical examination:
- Meeting with the consulting physician chosen by the victim to prepare for the medical examination;
- Assistance and preparation for the medical examination;
- Presence during the medical examination;
- Contradictory discussions between the parties (consulting physician of the insurance company, and insurance company lawyer / consulting physician chosen by the victim and victim’s lawyer) • Oral conclusions of the designated expert;
- Preliminary expert report and lawyers’ observations;
- Final report.
Stage 4: Request for Advance Payments on Compensation
Throughout this compensation process, Nadia HAMMAMI will request advance payments on the final compensation as soon as the right to compensation is undeniable.
These requests for advance payments are made either amicably or through legal means (mainly through summary proceedings).
These requests for advance payments can be made before the expert report, contrary to what insurance companies often claim.
Stage 5: Attempt to Negotiate
It is based on the expert’s final report that Nadia HAMMAMI will initiate a negotiation with the insurance company or the compensation fund for the final compensation of your injuries, item by item.
It is only in case of failure of this amicable process or in parallel with a negotiation that Nadia HAMMAMI will initiate proceedings before the court to uphold your rights and obtain full compensation for your injuries.
Stage 6: The Court
Compensation for injuries can be claimed before several jurisdictions depending on your situation.
Nadia HAMMAMI advises and defends you before the different competent courts:
- Before the criminal court, competent for civil interests, if the person responsible for your injuries is prosecuted criminally, you will need to file a civil action;
- Before the civil court, referred by the criminal court or upon the lawyer’s summons;
- Before the administrative court, in the context of medical liability of a public health establishment;
Initiating legal proceedings does not exclude pursuing or initiating a negotiation with the insurance company.
Nadia HAMMAMI is concerned about her clients’ interests and fully aware of judicial delays. She will always favor negotiation and the signing of a settlement agreement, provided that it fully respects her client’s rights.