The foreigner, who is involved in a car accident in italy, has the right to get compensation for damages: the foreigner shall be able to stay in his/her country, appointing an italian qualified lawyer

During the latest years, notwithstanding the presence of many public transports like trains and airplanes, many people still use the car for moving from one country to another one, for example for working reasons, as it may happen to cross-border people who work between two countries (transfrontalieri), with a concrete risk that an accident may happen among cars belonging to different countries. The possible issues could be several ones and, to this specific purpose, it is necessary to be advised with no delay by an Italian qualified lawyer specialized in this area of expertise, so to speed up without stumbles the necessary legal proceeding that needs to be followed.

Car accident with an involved foreigner in Italy: what to do immediately

The first thing to take care about, especially for a foreigner, is the following one: if a car accident happens in Italy, the applicable law shall be the Italian one, i.e. the one of the country where the accident occurred. In these cases, it is very important to appoint, with no delay, an Italian qualified lawyer who has already practised in the same area of expertise and who could deal with the issue as shortly as practicable. Firstly, it is always necessary to fill in the form “Cai” (“Cid”) that is quite similar almost all over the European Countries:

• Place of the accident;
• Time (day and hour) of the accident;
• Data concerning the insured people, the driver(s) and the owner(s) of the car(s);
• Company name of the insurance companies;
• Description of the accident;
• Description of the damages;
• Name(s) of injured people (if any);
• Name(s) of eventual witnesses (if any);

Car accident with an involved foreigner in Italy: to appoint a representative in his/her country is not necessary

In all the countries, which belong to the so-called “green card system”, i.e. all EU countries plus Ukraine, Turkey, Tunisia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Iran, Israel, Bosnia, Belarus, Andorra and Albania, the law has set forth that there will always be a representative of the Italian Insurance Company. This professional is called representative (“mandatario”) and his/her role is to represent the Italian insurance company in the foreign country. Actually, appointing an Italian qualified lawyer, there will be no need to search for the representative, because the Italian qualified lawyer shall be able to deal directly with the Italian insurance company all the matters connected to the accident, avoiding long timings and avoiding also unpleasant consequences.

Car accident with an involved foreigner in Italy: how to find the liable insurance company

Appointing an Italian qualified lawyer, there will be no need of dealing with useless researches which quite often may even only confuse. The appointed Italian qualified lawyer shall indeed contact directly the “UCI” (Italian central office) that will fulfil to find the insurance company which shall have to deal with the compensation for damages.

Also in this case, all the difficulties that may arise out while finding the subject, to whom the requests have to be addressed, could be easily solved appointing an Italian qualified lawyer who shall be able to quickly find the right subject, not wasting time in useless research activities and above all avoiding that, passing time, the chance to obtain compensation for damages may terminate due to limitation of right.

The insurance company must reply to the requests of the person who is injured due to car accident

The Italian qualified lawyer, appointed by the injured person, must send all necessary documents concerning the accident to the insurance company, so that the company may be able to propose a certain amount of money as compensation for damages to the injured person, and the Italian law provides that the proposal must be appropriate to the occurred damages and well grounded. This part of the proceeding is a fundamental one because, if the documents sent to the insurance company are not enough, there is always the risk of entering into a “ballet” between the insurance company, which keeps asking for more documents, and the injured person, who commits him/herself to collect and send these documents to the insurance company: a specialized Italian qualified lawyer, on the contrary, is very well aware about the documents that are really the compulsory ones to stop all the requests of the insurance company, which in the end shall reply in compliance with a specific deadline set forth under the Italian law: i.e. 90 days to propose a compensation for damages or to explain the reasons which grounded the lack of proposal.

The insurance company can verify the existence of possible personal injuries on the injured person due to car accident

In case of objection concerning possible personal injuries on the injured person, the same injured person cannot escape from any possible personal inspection that the insurance company would like to carry out. In the past, many insurance companies have paid amounts of money which were excessive in consideration of the damages that really occurred: therefore, currently the insurance companies usually request that, after the termination of the illness period of the injured person, the same injured person will be examined by a specialized doctor, chosen and appointed by the insurance company. In this case, the injured person shall be examined in his/her country.

Car accident with an involved foreigner in Italy: when the foreigner is sued

When the car accident happens in Italy and a foreign vehicle is involved, the matter could not terminate in the out-of-Court phase, but it could go on before the Italian competent Court. In these cases, it is always better to appoint an Italian qualified lawyer who could legally defend the foreigner before the Court, who knows very well the Italian law and who could therefore safeguard the interests of the foreigner. It may in fact happen that, not defending before the Italian competent Court or appointing a foreign lawyer, some provisions set forth under Italian law or some details pursuant to the Italian law may lead to an unfair unpleasant decision as well as to a compensation for damages which may not be the most appropriate one, given the facts that have already occurred.

Marzorati Law Firm is specialised in real estate law, also internationally, and its lawyers usually deal with litigation and insurance law. To advise all its clients all over Italy and worldwide, Marzorati Law Firm has also developed a network, made also of at least a barrister/solicitor, an attorney-at-law, an abogado, and an avocat à la cour, all qualified in their respective country of practice.