Practical information
The personal injury and death claims process is complex. There is a lot involved: legal aspects related to liability, compensation, financial and tax issues, medical assessments, decisions by the employer, educational authority or the UWV, inheritance law aspects. It is also important to know what can and cannot be claimed. With a specialised lawyer, and her/his team, you are not alone. We unburden you as much as possible or refer you to experts who can be helpful. Then you can focus on yourself, your family, your recovery or coping.
You can always submit a case to us free of charge and without obligation. We will then look at the feasibility of the case together. If liability is acknowledged, the lawyer's fees will be paid by the perpetrator or its insurer. For clients unable to pay our fees, we work on the basis of legal aid (see www.rvr.nl). In victim cases, in most cases, no co-payment is imposed. If you have legal expenses insurance, for example with Achmea Rechtsbijstand, ARAG or DAS, you are entitled to the so-called free choice of lawyer in the event of litigation or the right to a second opinion if the case gets stuck. We regularly issue a (binding) opinion or second opinion.
No, with us any victim can come forward. Whether it is whiplash injury, an NAH (non-congenital brain injury), a leg fracture, a disfiguring scar, a spinal cord injury or mental injury, e.g. shock injury or PTSD, it makes no difference to us. We help every victim.
Yes, but then the request for an advance payment must be well-founded. We work on that together. We know how to approach it, you can provide us with the documents we need. Good cooperation here will pay off right away.
Yes, you can. We visit clients with no or reduced mobility in the hospital, rehabilitation clinic or at home.
Yes, of course. If your injuries and limitations warrant it, third-party outsourcing costs should be reimbursed. Home help is a common claim. Informal care by your partner or a friend will also be reimbursed.
There is a simple rule of thumb for this: compare the situation without the accident (we call that: the would-be situation) with the situation after the accident (we call that: the concrete situation) and you know exactly what your damages consist of. This applies not only to the costs (medical expenses, travel costs, domestic help, loss of self-employment, aids., home adjustment, moving house, etc.) that are coming your way (because you would not have had them if the accident had not occurred), but also to your income situation, career opportunities, study delay, pension damage and the like.
Compensation in an injury and death case is, according to the Supreme Court, pure compensation. It is therefore calculated and paid net. The advances you receive and the final amount are not taxed in box 1 (IB/PH). However, there will be a levy in box 3 (wealth box). To avoid any ambiguity about this, a tax guarantee is issued by the insurer when the case is settled. This is a safety net in case the tax authorities take a different view.
Punitive damages are intangible compensation, for things that are somewhat less easily monetised. It thus concerns the victim's highly personal right, and each victim is unique. The amount depends on all the facts and circumstances that made an impression in the victim's life after the accident or medical malpractice, or attempted manslaughter. That is not only the pain and grief but also the lost enjoyment of life, job satisfaction, dependence on others, and the impact of all this. We identify all these aspects and we ensure that an appropriate amount of grievance is paid. We not only look in the grievance guide (a guide of judges' rulings on grievances) but also increasingly turn to the Rotterdam Scale, which is fairly new, listing different injury (categories).
In most cases, no cure, no pay is of no interest and many times more expensive than when a lawyer puts the costs down to the other party. In a case where the liability has been established (and that can be reasonably estimated by a professional right from the start) or where no problems arise in the claim settlement, no cure, no pay is completely unnecessary. Ask yourself why you have to hand over a percentage of your damages amount (and that is often quite a chunk) when the lawyer's fees can be charged to the other party.
You can divide the personal injury and death injury process into the following phases:
1. The liability phase: we discuss with you what has happened, and hold the person responsible for it liable with a comprehensive letter and position paper, if necessary we proceed to subpoena or file a partial dispute petition.
2. Home visit: mutual acquaintance where agreements are made on the claims process.
3. The inventory phase: we collect all the necessary medical information and seek advice from our medical adviser. We map out the damage items, prepare reasoned statements of damage and make proposals in connection with advance payments, the involvement of an employment expert (in the case of long-term disability), or a construction expert (in the case of transition to an adapted home), or a care expert (mapping out home adaptations, purchase of aids). This phase takes the most time. Developments in terms of recovery, study, work, retraining must be given all the space they need and waited for. Medical examinations can also take quite some time.
4. The negotiation phase: after everything has been mapped out and a medical end state has been reached, the case can be settled. We then make a comprehensive and well-founded settlement proposal, the starting point for negotiating compensation that we support. In many cases, we have the damage items that run through each year calculated by a calculation office, which can also include the tax component and provide insight into whether pension damage is involved and up to what amount.
5. The Settlement Phase: after agreement is reached, the settlement agreement and tax guarantee are drawn up, discussed and signed. This then settles the case. If there are any outstanding medical issues that may arise in the future, such as accelerated osteoarthritis in orthopaedic injuries, or the likelihood that osteosynthesis material may need to be removed, or other issues that cannot be easily foreseen, a caveat is included.
