When we are in a traffic accident we can suffer personal injuries. They can be minor, and although they need rehabilitation treatment to be healed, we might be able to go back to work a usual.  Maybe our lives will be the same afterwards, and maybe not. Sometimes there are long-term effects from the personal injuries we suffer in traffic accidents. Sometimes they are minor, and sometimes they are severe.
Sever injuries can force us to stay at home or in a nursing home, or immobilized, or even to stop working and take time off from work while we recover. This causes us a disability, which may be temporary or permanent. A disability can be associated with the traffic accident, which may be of a greater or lesser degree depending on the symptoms that we are left with.

DISABILITY IN A CAR ACCIDENT

In our country, a large number of disabling injuries are caused by traffic accidents. We must bear in mind that in the case of victims of road accidents, a pension for permanent disability on the one hand, and compensation arising from the road accident itself are compatible, in other words, that the injured person will be able to collect on both counts.
Another fact to be taken into account is that many traffic accidents occur either during the working day or on the way home from work or vice versa (the so-called in itinere accident), all of which are considered to be accidents at work.
In relation to the traffic accident, the victim may claim the corresponding compensation for civil liability, which will be calculated using the traffic scale for the year of the accident, and the amount of which will depend on the actual damage suffered, the extent of the injuries, the healing time and the consequences that have been left.
Sometimes these symptoms that have been left to us as a result of the incident are of sufficient gravity to make it difficult for us to carry out our usual work or profession, or even to prevent us from exercising it in whole or in part.
In these cases, the regulations allow, in addition to being able to receive the compensation that corresponds to us for the period of health and for the consequences, to receive other compensation for the disability caused by the traffic accident suffered.
The types of disabilities that exist, depending on the severity of the long term symptoms, are:

  • Partial permanent disability for the profession or usual work.
  • Total permanent disability for the profession or usual job.
  • Absolute permanent incapacity for the profession or usual work.
  • Severe disability.

To apply for permanent disability or major disability, at work, the victim will have to make the necessary arrangements with the Social Security offices, and the requirement is that the injured person must be registered with the Social Security System on the date of the accident. After the appropriate formalities, a decision will be made and the amount of the pension will depend on the degree of incapacity granted and on the regulatory basis of the person concerned.

WHAT IS TEMPORARY DISABILITY?

Temporary disability indicates the period in which, as a result of the traffic accident, you are temporarily incapable of making your life normal, but as the word temporary indicates, it disappears with time.
The most common assumption would be that the injured person, as a result of the accident, has to take time off work. This leave may be shorter or longer, depending on the extent of the injuries sustained, but after medical discharge the victim may return to his or her normal occupation.
Temporary disability also includes cases of injured people who, even if they do not work, are temporarily unable to go about their normal lives. Examples of such cases would be child victims who are unable to go to school because of the accident, or housewives, or retirees, or non-working people, who because of their injury have to remain at rest, or without moving, and therefore cannot carry out their daily occupations. For example, if they are in plaster, or if they have a hip fracture that requires absolute rest, or if they wear a corset because of a fractured vertebra.

WHAT IS PERMANENT DISABILITY?

In the past, three types of disability were clearly distinguished: partial permanent (cases in which the injuries make it difficult for the injured person to perform his or her normal job, but not difficult for the injured person to perform some the essential functions of his or her normal job); total permanent (cases in which the victim is unable to perform any of the functions of his or her normal job); absolute permanent (those cases in which the injured person has such serious consequences that he or she cannot carry out any profession, neither the one he or she had been performing before the accident nor any other). Compensation for each type of permanent disability varies in a range of amounts, and it was always controversial to justify why a specific amount was requested within this range.
Now, the nomenclature and method of calculation, as well as the amount of compensation, has changed substantially, although the types of disability remain the same.
It is now referred to as personal injury due to sequelae, and it is established that there will be a right to this compensation if the following conditions are met:

  • That a functional sequel is equal to or greater than 60 points or if they are concurrent sequelae when applying the corrective formula exceeds 85 points.
  • There is a consequence for aesthetic damage equal to or greater than 36 points.
  • The sequelae must result in a loss of quality of life for the injured party.

The legislation divides the damage into four types, which are on a par with the cases that existed in the old scale:

  • Very serious injury: the injured person loses his or her personal autonomy and is unable to perform the basic activities of ordinary life.
  • Serious harm: the victim loses his or her personal autonomy to perform some of his or her essential activities, including the impossibility of doing any normal work or profession (total permanent disability).
  • Moderate harm: the injured person cannot perform much of his or her normal activities, including the inability to do his or her normal job.
  • Slight damage: includes the case of an injured person with more than 6 points of sequelae who is unable to do some important activities in his or her normal life, or who has less than 6 points and is unable to do all the usual functions of his or her job (partial permanent disability).

AVREK LAWYERS

If you have been in a traffic accident, you need to determine if you must claim temporary or permanent disability as part of your compensation. The steps need to be taken to assure your claim, even if it is also necessary to make a request of your employer to determine if you are entitled to a pension. Avrek puts its specialized team at your disposal to help with the civil liability, but also we have a team of the best labor lawyers. This provides you a comprehensive service to centralize your claim and put together all the means to make the claim a success.