France Injury Claim Time Limit Guide – Limitation Period For A Personal Injury Claim In France? – How Long Do I Have To Claim Compensation?
France personal injury claim
If you have been made ill or injured in France because of an accident that was not your fault, you could have a legal right to make a personal injury claim for compensation. Of course, if you become seriously injured or ill in France or elsewhere overseas, your first priority should be getting the right medical treatment and getting home safely once you are well enough to travel. However, if your accident was the result of negligence caused by another person, such as a driver of another vehicle, the management of a hotel, or a sports activity provider, you could have a legal right to make a personal injury claim for compensation against that party.
If you are injured in France, you not only have the worry of treating your illness or injuries but also the added stress of travelling home safely, often, before you have completely recovered. Therefore claiming compensation may not be your first priority. However, whilst getting well should be your number one priority, you could start seeking compensation for your accident in France once you are fit and well enough to. In order to pursue for compensation through a personal injury claim there needs to be a liable party. There is a statute of limitations in France, which means that there is a time limit on how long you have to claim compensation, it starts from the date of your accident, or the day that you realised you had been made injured or ill. The length of the statute of limitations in France varies for travellers from the United Kingdom, depending on the circumstances in which they are injured or how they booked their trip.
Remember, if you were made ill or injured because of an accident on holiday in France that was not your fault, you could be able to claim holiday accident compensation for the injuries you sustained. This can include general damages to compensate you for the pain suffering and loss of amenity that you experienced and special damages to reimburse you for any out of pocket expenses you experienced as a result. Trust Legal Expert to help you make your personal injury claim in France. We are an experienced and respected personal injury specialists, and the solicitors we provide have decades of experience helping holidaymakers like yourself claim compensation for accidents abroad. If you were injured or made ill in France, because of an accident that was not your fault, call us today on 0800 073 8804 for your free personal injury claims consultation. We will assess your situation, and if you have reasonable grounds to claim we can then provide you with an experienced personal injury claims solicitor, who will start working on your claim right away.
Select A Section
- A Guide To Personal Injury Claim Time Limits In France
- What Is An Accident On Holiday In France?
- How Are Personal Injury Claims In France Handled?
- Estimating Damages Under French Law
- Liability Under French Law
- Time Limits For Personal Injury Claims In France
- I Had An Accident On Holiday In France, What Can My Claim Include?
- Accident Personal Injury Claims Calculator
- No Win No Fee Holiday Accident Claims In France
- Why Claim Compensation With Our Expert Team?
- Calling Our Team
- Advice And Resources
A Guide To Personal Injury Claim Time Limits In France
With its iconic cities, charming countryside and exciting skiing destinations, France is the most visited holiday destination in the world (2017). Many of the holidaymakers who visit France are from the United Kingdom. In fact, in 2016, France was visited by 17 million people from the United Kingdom. As well as travelling to France for a holiday, people visit France for business trips, or to see family and friends who live there. France is considered a relatively safe country to visit and most trips to France are trouble-free. However, accidents could happen to holidaymakers, causing an injury or illness. Whilst some accidents are unavoidable, other accidents are avoidable and may have been caused by negligence of another party, such as a hotel, restaurant or activity provider.
In this guide to claiming personal injury compensation in France, we will look at the time limits for personal injury claims in France, depending on the circumstances of your injuries. We will also look at how personal injury claims under French law differ from personal injury claims at home. Remember, if you have been injured in France because of an accident that was not your fault, call Legal Expert today, about making a personal injury claim in France. If you have the right to claim, we will provide you with an experienced personal injury solicitor to represent you, who will begin working on your compensation case right away.
What Is An Accident On Holiday In France?
Before we begin, let’s define what we mean by an accident on holiday in France. As personal injury specialists, we are only able to help clients claim for injuries caused by an accident in France that was not their fault. If you were injured in an accident that was unavoidable, or caused by negligent behaviour on your part (for example, you went against the instructor’s advice during a skiing session and injured yourself), then we can not help you claim compensation. However, if your accident was caused by the negligence of another party, for example, you were injured whilst skiing because your instructor was improperly trained, then you may be able to claim compensation.
Examples of accidents in France we could help holidaymakers claim for, include the following: being injured in a restaurant in France, being injured in a hotel accident in France or becoming injured in a road traffic accident in France. If you have suffered a France holiday illness or injury because of a French holiday accident that was not your fault, but the fault of a third party you could be able to seek to claim for damages. Call Legal Expert today and if you are entitled to claim, we will provide you with an experienced personal injury lawyer who will start working on your claim right away.
How Are Personal Injury Claims In France Handled?
In France, personal injury claims are settled by answering the question of liability and the question of compensation. The question of liability, according to Article 1382 du Code Civil, defines liability as “Every act whatever of man that causes damage to another, obliges him by whose fault it occurred to repair it”. The question of compensation is defined by the pecuniary damages (special damages) and non-pecuniary damages (general damages) that are awarded to cover temporary and permanent losses, and pain, suffering and loss of amenity.
Estimating Damages Under French Law
In France, questions of how much compensation a person can receive are resolved by a medical survey of the injuries suffered by the victim. This survey defines the extent of the Claimant’s injuries and their value in compensation. This may apply to you if your claim is conducted through the French courts.
Liability Under French Law
In French law, liability varies depending on the type of claim that has taken place. If the claim is for a road traffic accident, then there is an option for no-fault liability. For any other sort of personal injury claims, such as a medical negligence claim the law provides fault liability, with only a few very specific exceptions for no-fault liability.
Time Limits For Personal Injury Claims In France
In France, the personal injury claims time limits vary depending on the circumstances of your injury. If you have been injured on a package holiday purchased through a UK tour operator, your personal injury claims time limit will be three years. This is because the UK has a statute of limitations of three years, meaning that from the day of your accident, or the day you realised you had become injured or made ill, you will have three years in which to begin your claim. This is codified in the Package Travel, Package Holiday, and Package Tour Regulations 1992.
| Circumstances of accident / type of claim/ claimant | Time limit applicable |
|---|---|
| General time limit for personal injury claims | up to 10 years may vary. |
| Accidents and injuries on a UK company booked package holiday. | 3 years |
| Flight accident claims. Time limits vary depending on if your accident happened on a privately-booked flight or one which was part of a package holiday. | 2 years for privately booked flights. |
However, if your accident in France was caused by an individual, business or organisation that is based in France, your personal injury claim time limit may be much longer. The statute of limitations in France, if you have been injured on a privately booked holiday to France, is ten years. Therefore you may have ten years in which to begin your personal injury claim. This also applies to France statute of limitations for criminal cases.
If you are injured on a privately-booked flight to France, or coming back from France, the time limits for personal injury claims in France is two years.
I Had An Accident On Holiday In France, What Can My Claim Include?
If you are injured or made ill because of a France holiday accident that was not your fault, you may be able to claim damages for your injuries. We will now look at what you may be able to claim.
General damages:
General damages are usually the largest single part of any compensation award. They exist to compensate the injured person for their pain, suffering and loss of amenity.
Special damages:
Special damages exist to reimburse the compensation claimant for financial losses they suffered as a result of their accident. We will now look at expenses people who could have experienced a France holiday accident or France holiday injury may claim back.
- Medical expenses: If you needed medical treatment immediately after your accident, or require ongoing medical treatment as a result of your injuries, you could claim back these expenses as part of your compensation package.
- Travel expenses: Travel expenses can include the price of getting a taxi to the hospital, repatriation back to your home country, or seeking alternative transport whilst you were recovering from your injuries.
- Home adaptations and mobility equipment: If you became disabled as a result of your accident, you could claim expenses for any home adaptations or mobility equipment you now need.
- Care expenses: If a friend or family member cared for you while you were recovering from your injuries, you could claim compensation for them, on their behalf.
- Loss of income: If you missed out on salary payments or benefit payments such as sick pay, or contribution to your pension, whilst you were recovering from your illness, then you could claim these back as part of your compensation package.
Accident Personal Injury Claims Calculator
If you have been injured on holiday in France and you are still within the time limits for personal injury claims in France, you may be anxious to know how much compensation you could claim for your injuries. You can use this example of a simple personal injury claims calculator, below, to estimate how much compensation you could be owed through a claim.
| Part of body injured | Seriousness | Settlements | More details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toe injury | Moderate – severe | Up to £49,180 | Covering injuries up to the loss of a foot. |
| Ankle injury | Minor – severe | Up to £61,110 | To be awarded highest settlements include cases of a transmalleolar fracture of the ankle with extensive soft-tissue damage resulting in deformity. |
| Foot injury | Minor – severe | Up to £176,660 | Top awards will be awarded for the loss of both of your feet or below-knee amputation of both legs because the common feature is loss of a useful ankle joint. |
| Leg injury | Minor – severe | Up to £119,210 | Injuries will fall short of amputations at the highest end. |
| Hand injury | Minor – serious | Up to £54,280 | Most serious injuries in these categories will reduce the usability of the hand by around 50%. |
| Wrist injury | Minor – severe | Up to £52,490 | Most serious injuries here will result in the effective loss of use in the wrist. |
| Arm injury | Moderate – severe | Up to £52,490 | Injury to the arm resulting in a permanent level of disability. |
| Finger injury | Minor – severe fractures | Up to £32,210 | Very wide range of injuries covered. Please talk to our experts for more information. |
| Back injury | Minor – severe | Up to £141,150 | Including spinal cord and nerve injuries. Severe injury involving damage to the spinal cord and nerve roots, |
| Neck injury | Minor – moderate | Up to £33,750 | Claimant could be left with risidual disabilities in the neck, Injuries such as fractures or dislocations which cause severe immediate symptoms. |
The value of your holiday accident claim may vary, depending on your individual circumstances. This table also does not include the value of any special damages you could be eligible to receive. For an accurate estimation of how much your personal injury claim in France could be worth, call Legal Expert today. If you have justifiable grounds to claim compensation, one of our informed advisors will not only let you know how much compensation you could claim, they will also provide you with an excellent personal injury solicitor, who will start working on your claim right away.
No Win No Fee Holiday Accident Claims In France
At Legal Expert, our team understands that becoming injured on holiday can be a highly stressful and traumatic experience. It can also hit your wallet very hard if you are unable to work as usual for a period of time. Therefore, it’s understandable that you probably won’t want to go to the added expense and stress of paying an upfront fee to claim compensation. That’s why we offer all of our clients the choice to make their claim through a no win no fee agreement. No win no fee means that you will only have to pay your fee if you win your compensation claim, so there is no financial risk involved in making your claim. In the unlikely event that you do not win your personal injury claim in France, you will not have to pay Legal Expert a penny. Of course, we only take on personal injury claims that we know that we could win, but for many of the people, we help, making a no win no fee claim for it is the more affordable and less stressful option, as there is no risk involved.
If you wish to claim for a holiday accident in France that was not your fault, call Legal Expert today to see if you are entitled to claim. If you have justifiable grounds to claim, we will provide you with a no win no fee solicitor to handle your claim, who will start working on your case as soon as possible. Call us today to start your claim, or read our online guide to making a no win no fee claim, for more information.
Why Claim Compensation With Our Expert Team?
If you have been injured or made ill because of a France holiday accident that was not your fault, you could qualify to claim a combination of damages for your injuries. Whether you have been injured in a road traffic accident in France, injured in a restaurant in France or you have suffered a hotel accident in France, you could qualify for compensation if the accident was not your fault. As long as your claim is within the France limitation period of course.
Calling Our Team
To begin your claim, call Legal Expert for your free personal injury claims consultation. Remember, our panel of solicitors have up to 30 years of experience helping clients make personal injury claims, and will always push to get you the maximum amount of compensation that you are owed. So call today for your free consultation and if you have the right to make a personal injury claim, we will start working on your claim right away. Call us today, we’re looking forward to hearing from you.
Advice And Resources
Limitation Period For A Personal Injury Claim In Spain – How Long Do I Have To Claim Compensation?
How Much Compensation Can I Claim For An Injury In France? – A guide to making a claim.
Hotel Accident Claims In France, How Much Can I Claim For A Personal Injury? – Hotel accident claims in France explained.
Edited By Melissa.
