Comparison of indemnity for body damage due to traffic accidents in Portugal and
Spain
Since remote civilizations there has been laws referring to sanctions and indemnity for body
damage. In Rome, lex Aquilia assumed the need for damage repair, valued for free men extra
patrimonial prejudices and temporary incapacity, considered victim’s capacity before and
after the damage and his professional skills. Napoleon’s Code centered the need for total
damage repair on “guilt”. Technological evolution aggravated risk for “non guilt” accidents
needing repair by assurance companies and society.
Evaluation and repairing damage is a central discussing subject in EU. Road accidents being
a major cause of body damage, we compare Portuguese and Spanish indemnity systems for
road accidents. In Portugal indemnity depends upon a medical legal evaluation to be valued
by a judge in court; in Spain there is a mandatory evaluation instrument.
We compare indemnity values paid for 32 cases in Portugal, judged by different courts, with
values obtained for the same cases using Spanish “baremo”. Values from different years were
actualized for inflation rate. Indemnity values in Portugal were also converted to Spanish
standard of life using the ratio of both internal products.
Indemnity for death, in Portugal, varied from 20 351 to 227 915 euros (medium 83 387
euros). In Spain they varied from 33 815 to 194 383 euros (medium 108 914 euros).
Indemnity for temporary incapacity with or without permanent lesions in Portugal varied
from 956 to 399 105 euros (medium 90 201 euros) and in Spain from 3 488 to 365 152
euros (medium 99 104 euros). Considering major incapacity only medium indemnity was 88
331 euros in Portugal and 219 185 euros in Spain. By the other hand, considering cases
with incapacity below 50%, medium indemnity was 57 978 euros in Portugal and 39 918 in
Spain.
In Portugal time lapsing between the accident and final court decision was up to 13
years.
Both systems seem equally effective in evaluating damage and determining indemnity even
if major incapacity is more valued in Spain. However Spanish system may achieve more rapid
decisions with less cost.
Author
Albuquerque, Manuel Tadeu Correia
Keywords
Dommage corporel,
Accident routier,
Indemnisation,
Dano corporal,
Acidente de viação,
Indemnização,
Body damage,
Road accident,
Indemnity