Claiming for General Damages in South Africa

Being the victim in a car accident can be very confusing. No one ever expects an accident. Suddenly there is a great deal of paperwork to deal with, and medical costs. Possibly you’ll have to take time off work without pay, and deal with painful injuries.

After you are hurt in a car accident that was not your fault, you know you are entitled to the cost of medical treatment, prescriptions, and loss of income. That part of your settlement, the Special Damages, is not difficult to determine. You just need to add up the receipts and submit them to the at-fault driver’s insurance adjuster. The adjuster will then want you to sign a document releasing them from further liability due to the accident. But they also need to reimburse you for general damages as well. How much are you entitled to? How much should you settle for? And what does it all mean?

General Damages includes damages due to pain-and-suffering and emotional harm from physical injuries and loss of consortium. These damages are intrinsically difficult to quantify. If you have constant back pain following an accident, how can you put a price tag on it? If you suffer a disfiguring scar, what settlement cost could possibly alleviate your pain? And of course, sometimes loved ones die in accidents. These types of questions are difficult, even painful, to contemplate.

When a crash takes place there are several steps you should take immediately that will help the accident claim process go smoother as time passes, by knowing what to do. it will help you when that accident occur. 

One approach is to multiply the Special Damages settlement by some number between two and four, as a rule of thumb. But this is only a starting point. If your injuries are not long lasting, debilitating, or emotionally distressing, you would stick to the low end of the spectrum. Yet if your injuries result in constant pain, either emotional or physical, this figure should be adjusted upwards. 

Another reason for adjusting a settlement value upwards is if the at-fault party acted irresponsibly. From one point of view the pain-and-suffering experienced is the same whether the other driver is drunk or sober. Yet if the case were to go before a jury, the award for a drunken driving incident would undoubtedly be higher if the other driver were inebriated.  

Another way to estimate General Damages is to find a precedent. There are many accidents every year, so you should be able to look at how other parties have settled for guidance. The government transportation administration often collects this sort of data, which may even be available online.  

The insurance adjuster will generally try to work to decrease whatever figure you come up with. Ensuring that you are treated fairly is really a matter of knowing your rights, understanding what reasonable settlement size is, and being familiar with precedent. Just because your injuries aren’t visible, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be compensated for them.