After a traffic accident, is it better to file a lawsuit or settle it?

After a traffic accident, if both parties suggest that settlement be preferred, and the party responsible for the accident refuses to bear the liability for compensation, the injured party may file a civil lawsuit to protect its rights.

Step 1: Be clear about who you want to sue

In litigation, "who to sue" is a very important issue. If the target of the lawsuit is wrong, it will not only waste time, manpower, and financial resources, but also fail to achieve the purpose of claiming compensation. On the issue of "who to sue", the first thing to see is who is the owner of the vehicle on the license of the other party at the time of the accident, and if it is the driver who caused the accident, then directly sue him.

If the vehicle is owned by another owner, the driver can be sued as co-defendants along with the owner. If the owner of the vehicle is a unit, the unit can be sued as a defendant.

In addition, from the perspective of safeguarding the interests of the injured party, the "Measures for the Handling of Road Traffic Accidents" promulgated by *** also specifically stipulates the principle that the owner bears the responsibility of advance payment. If the driver of the motor vehicle who bears the liability for compensation is temporarily unable to compensate, the driver's unit or the owner of the motor vehicle shall be responsible for the advance. However, after the fact, the owner of the vehicle who bears the responsibility of the advance payment can recover from the driver who caused the accident.

Step 2: Get the evidence.

The traffic management department of the public security organ is the statutory authority for determining road traffic accidents, and although the "Road Traffic Accident Liability Determination" issued by it should be cross-examined by the parties and cannot of course become the basis for the court to determine the facts of the case, it is still of great significance in the litigation as an important evidence for handling traffic accident disputes, and in the litigation, it is still of great significance to prove the degree of responsibility of both parties. After the case is brought to the court, although the court should confirm the responsibility for the accident based on the facts investigated by the court, and the scope of the investigation is not limited by the public security organ's liability determination, under normal circumstances, when the parties do not have conclusive evidence to overturn the content of the liability determination, the court will accept the public security organ's determination of liability and determine the liability of the relevant party on this basis. Therefore, when the parties get the accident liability determination letter from the traffic team, they must carefully read the content of the liability determination.

If they are not satisfied, they should promptly apply to the public security organ at the next higher level for reconsideration.

Step 3: Reasonable compensation.

In traffic accident disputes, the compensation issues involved generally include compensation for property damage and compensation for personal injury. The scope of compensation for property damage mainly includes: repair fees; loss of goods on board, etc.

Repair fee: According to the reasonable amount on the repair invoice, if the vehicle has been scrapped, it should be compensated at a discount; Compensation for damage to items on board the vehicle in an accident shall be based on the actual loss.

The main items of personal injury compensation are: medical expenses; Lost time pay; Hospitalization meal subsidy; nursing fees; Living allowance for the disabled; disability appliance fee; funeral expenses; death compensation; maintenance of dependants; Travelling expenses; accommodation fees and so on. Among them, the lost work expenses include two parts, one is the lost work expenses caused by the party's inability to go to work during the period of medical treatment and hospitalization, and the other is the lost work expenses due to the handling of the aftermath of the traffic accident.

After a traffic accident, when faced with the issue of compensation, should you choose to file a lawsuit or settle it? Often the victim chooses to reconcile because of the injured person who gets the money. Then I heard that I should have been able to get more financial compensation, and I regretted it.

The advantage of "reconciliation" is: the money is taken quickly, and it is settled in one go.

The advantages and disadvantages of "settlement" are: less money, generally no solatium for mental damages, no living expenses for dependents, and disability compensation according to the standard of the urban or rural area where the household registration is located.

If there is a residual problem of disability after reconciliation, it cannot be resolved.

We once ** a client, after the operation, the family thought that there was no problem, and reached a settlement under the repeated requests of the other party, and the settlement amount was 60,000 yuan. Later, the condition recurred, and he was hospitalized**, and as a result, he spent more than 80,000 yuan, and the injured person lost his ability to work, and when the family asked the perpetrator to take the money again, the perpetrator took out a settlement agreement, which clearly stated that everyone (the car party and the injured person) would pay off their debts and debts from now on, and they would not owe each other. The injured person regretted it and finally left, which was really pitiful and infuriating.

The advantages of litigation are: more money, sometimes more than a settlement; If there is a residual problem with the disability, it can be sued again to solve the problem.

The disadvantages of litigation are: the time is long, the fastest is 2-3 months, generally takes 5-6 months, and the slowest is about a year.

Settlement, litigation is likely to accompany the money is not as much as you said when you settled, please understand the country's relevant traffic accident compensation standards.

Before choosing, you should understand the other party's ability to compensate and calculate the amount of compensation you should receive, as well as the cost of litigation, and then choose.

There are also economic benefits in this, and there are accounts to be calculated. If the two parties do not suffer much, or the losses of both parties are similar, they should choose to negotiate a settlement. Because of a trivial matter, or something that could have been resolved through negotiation, but you called the police, then both of you had to go to the traffic police force, detain the car, delay the matter, and have quite a lot of economic losses, and give the money to the traffic police force.

Of course, if the matter is big and the negotiation fails, the police should still be called. This is especially true when you have small responsibilities and large losses.

It is better to reconcile than to reconcile.

Let's reconcile, be reasonable.

The first thing you have to consider is the latter, and if you are not satisfied, you can't reach a settlement. You tell me!

Many parties misunderstand "reconciliation" and "litigation" as two things that are incompatible, in fact, reconciliation and litigation are the two most important ways to solve traffic accidents, in our case, we will respect the opinions of the parties, whether they want to settle or litigation, if the parties want to reconcile, then we will develop a set of optimal settlement plans. In practice, about 20% of the cases we handle are resolved through court mediation, helping victims to resolve their problems quickly.

The choice between settlement and litigation should be decided on the basis of the specific circumstances of the case, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of settlement is that the case is settled quickly. The disadvantages are:

There are few compensation items, and no solatium for mental damage, no living expenses for dependents, and disability compensation cannot be converted from farming to non-farming. Taking level 10 as an example, the cost of undercompensation is generally about 40,000 yuan, and the higher the level, the more undercompensation; There are no follow-up** fees. The settlement agreement generally stipulates:

Any problems that arise after mediation have nothing to do with the parties responsible. Many parties with worsening injuries come to us because there is a clause in the mediation agreement, and we can't help them; It is extremely risky to be indecisive. Due to the settlement, many parties handed over their materials to the other party, and then several mediations were unsuccessful, and there was no evidence to go to court, so they could only accept less compensation.

The disadvantage of litigation is that it takes a little longer to resolve the dispute. The benefits are:

It is more fair to settle the matter through the courts; Professional lawyers can protect the interests of the parties to the greatest extent through litigation, and the claims are more comprehensive, and the parties are relieved; Subsequent ** costs can be resolved by re-litigation.

The two sides should mediate well, and in the process of traffic accident litigation, they should be able to mediate, not let go of the possibility of mediation in the litigation and the various stages before and after the litigation, and seize all the opportunities for mediation to conclude the case as much as possible.

From the perspective of better serving the victims and better protecting the rights and interests of the victims, the majority of traffic accident victims still have to settle the case through litigation mediation as the best solution.

In the past five years, courts across the country have mediated more than 34 million traffic accident cases, with a mediation success rate of 96. For this reason, the national level also pays great attention to mediation work, in addition to the current common court mediation, after the people's mediation work is further completed, social organizations to mediate will also be very common. In the United States, it is common for compensation mediation to be done by lawyers.

It is hoped that the power of the people will be used to drive the participation of the Lawyers Association, the Judicial Hu Dan Bureau, insurance companies, traffic police, and hospitals, and take the victims as the core to help them solve problems and do practical things.

The insurance company has its own standard of compensation, and if the court's judgment may be higher than its own standard, it should want to mediate; Otherwise, there is no difference because the insurance company does not cover the costs of litigation and appraisal fees.

It must be that the mediation between the two parties is good, and the case can be concluded as soon as possible, but the insurance company is not afraid of lawsuits.

After the mediation agreement is reached, both parties to the accident can file a lawsuit with the court. Mediation and compensation by the public security traffic management department is not a necessary procedure for resolving disputes over compensation for traffic accident damages, nor is it a pre-procedure for litigation. If any party to the mediation agreement fails to perform or does not fully perform, all parties may file a lawsuit with the people's court.

At the same time, the legal documents that can be applied to the court for compulsory enforcement include: legally effective judgments, rulings, mediation documents, payment orders, arbitration awards, and notarized creditor's rights documents. The mediation document refers to the effective mediation document prepared by the people's court, and does not include the mediation document of the public security traffic management department.

In view of the above provisions, if the other party repents and sues the people's court, the parties may submit the traffic accident mediation document to the people's court as evidence, and the people's court will hear it in accordance with the law. Article 74 of the Road Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China.

Article 2 of the Provisions on Procedures for Handling Road Traffic Accidents stipulates that if the parties jointly request mediation, the traffic police shall conduct mediation on the spot, record the mediation results on the road traffic accident certificate, and have the parties sign and serve on the parties.