Moral damage in an accident: judicial practice 2021

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Published: 09/03/2018

Reading time: 7 min

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According to the interpretation of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), given in Art. 151, moral damage means moral and/or physical suffering caused to an individual as a result of direct or indirect violation of his personal non-property rights, infringement of his intangible benefits, or in other cases provided for by law (including violation of property rights, but only subject to the existence of a corresponding provision of law).

Legislative regulation
Compensation for moral damage: form, size, criteria for determining the amount of compensation
Criteria for determining the amount of compensation

Recovery of moral damages: confirmation of the claim, features of the procedure

Collection procedure

How does compensation for moral damages work?

Compensation for damage caused to health after an accident is paid by the person responsible for the accident, in cash and in the amount that was established either by a court decision or by an agreement between the victims and the causer of harm.

Why is he appointed?

The payment is ordered by the court on the basis of Article 151 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. It states that moral damage is due for causing physical or moral suffering, in case of violation of personal non-property rights or intangible benefits.

In our case, the victim of an accident suffers harm to his health, and this means physical and, in some cases, moral suffering.

But recovery of moral damage does not happen just like that; you will have to go to court with a claim against the culprit and, most importantly, prove the infliction of suffering.

Preparing for trial

For the trial, you need to carefully prepare, draw up a claim and obtain enough evidence to allow you to receive compensation for moral damages. You will need to collect medical certificates, make copies of them and attach them to the claim.

Attention

Sometimes the judge partially grants the claim, so it is important to indicate in the claim an amount commensurate with the harm caused to you. After all, if you ask for too much money, the court may consider it unreasonable and completely refuse to satisfy the claim.

Is it possible to recover if there is an accident without victims?

If the health of no one involved in the accident was damaged, then we are dealing with a normal accident. And the second party is considered the victim, not the victim. When damage is caused only to property, then no personal non-property rights of the victims are violated, and, therefore, they have nothing to receive moral compensation for.

Many motorists are mistaken and believe that their worries about a broken car or agony in public transport when traveling without a car fall under moral damages, and they will be able to present all this to the culprit of the accident, but this is not so.

The only compensation that can be obtained in such a situation is payment for the violation by the insurer of the rights of the victim (consumer) when making insurance compensation for compulsory motor liability insurance. For example, when the insurance company did not pay or repair the car on time. However, in this case, the amount of compensation will be disproportionately less than if harm to life and health was caused in an accident.

At the same time, the Supreme Court (paragraph 45 of the Resolution of the Plenum No. 17) indicated that the amount of such damage should be established by the courts, regardless of the size of the main claims for material damage. But the payment of morals should be mandatory.

How much is the amount of moral damage in judicial practice in 2021?

Victims of road accidents must understand that determining the amount of moral damage is entirely at the discretion of the judge. There are no average or standardized payments in such cases and depending on the region and even the judge in the same court, the amount of moral damages can vary greatly.

If there are no casualties

As we said above, without harm to health there is no normal compensation for moral damage. After suing the insurer, in the event of a violation of your rights to compensate for damages for a broken car, you will be able to claim compensation in the amount of 5-10 thousand rubles. If you are awarded more, consider yourself very lucky.

And a couple of examples from judicial practice.

In Samara, the court refused to satisfy the demands for compensation for moral damage from the culprit, which is fully consistent with the established practice in the courts.
But, as we indicated above, it is quite easy to collect it from insurance companies; and here is an example of a court when such a requirement was satisfied in full in the amount of 5,000 rubles, and even the amount was not reduced.
But the court in the Kemerovo region reduced the amount of moral damage from 5 to one thousand rubles.

For minor damage to health caused in an accident

Mild harm to health is characterized by:

short-term health disorder, temporary disability due to damage to health (less than 21 days),
slight loss of ability to work (less than 10%).

The severity of harm to health is determined exclusively by medical examination.

In 2021, there is a Government Resolution for this purpose, which approved the Rules for determining the severity of harm.

In accordance with this legal act, the corresponding Order of the Ministry of Health was issued, which reflects the criteria for classifying certain injuries as a certain degree of harm to health.

So, let's move on to the main question of who and how much moral damage will be awarded in 2021 using examples:

The Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court in case No. 33-1795/2020 recovered moral damages in favor of the plaintiff in the amount of 50,000 rubles,
Saratov case also with minor harm to health - 60,000 rubles,
decision from St. Petersburg 2021 - payment of moral compensation amounted to 250,000 (to a pregnant woman),
Another case in St. Petersburg with the recovery of damages for personal injury in the amount of 50,000 rubles,
Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan – 15,000,
solution from Sverdlovsk – 35,000 rubles.

Having analyzed such cases in judicial practice, a connection can be traced: the amounts of moral damage awarded differ due to the circumstances of a particular accident and the personalities of the culprit and the victim. It also depends significantly on the region in which the dispute is being considered.

For average severity

You can read about the criteria for determining average harm to health in paragraph 7 of the Order of the Ministry of Health.

They are similar to mild harm to health, but the numbers are different:

loss of ability to work from 10 to 30%,
long-term health disorder (more than 21 days).

Let's see how the numbers differ in the amounts of compensation awarded.

The Leningrad Regional Court awarded moral damages to the victim after an accident in the amount of 150,000 rubles,
in St. Petersburg, by decision No. 33-8789/2020, an amount of 80,000 rubles was recovered,
Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan in case No. 33-11163/2020 – 80,000,
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan in case No. 33-5847/2020 for average harm to health recovered 150,000 rubles from the culprit of the accident,
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Tyva in case No. 33-287/2020, when challenging the amount of moral compensation by the plaintiff, increased the amount to 100,000,
in Sverdlovsk, as a result of a claim with moderate severity in an accident, the amount was 200,000 rubles.

For serious harm to health

There are a lot of criteria by which health damage received in an accident is classified as serious; all of them can be read in paragraph 6 of the Order of the Ministry of Health. There is:

injuries that pose a danger to the life of the victim,
loss or severe deterioration of vision, hearing, speech and the like,
loss of limbs, organs or loss of their functions,
And much more.

It seems that given such serious harm to health, the amount of moral compensation should increase many times over, is this true in judicial practice in 2021? And again examples:

The Saratov Regional Court in case No. 33-1062/2020 satisfied the amount of moral damage of only 70,000 rubles (look again at the amount of penalties above for medium and light damage),
but in St. Petersburg the judge made a slightly different decision, where the cost of moral damage amounted to 500 thousand,
and another case in St. Petersburg - 1 million rubles,
Rostov Regional Court in case No. 33-5165/2020 – 300,000,
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan in case No. 33-3997/2020 recovered moral damages in the amount of 100,000 rubles
Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan in case No. 33-11089/2020 – 250,000 rubles.

As you can see, the range of amounts awarded is colossal, so only one thing can be said with confidence – the victim will not be left without compensation, but, alas, it is impossible to name the exact amount that will be paid to you.

For the death of a person

For the death of a person in an accident, his relatives can seek moral compensation. The subtlety here is that there may be several plaintiffs, respectively, and compensation will be paid to each of them. Therefore, in examples of recent judicial practice, we will indicate the number of plaintiffs and amounts.

The St. Petersburg City Court in case No. 33-11039/2020 decided that the culprit in the accident is obliged to pay 2 relatives 600,000 rubles each,
Meanwhile, another judge in St. Petersburg awarded a much smaller amount of compensation - 80,000 rubles in favor of one plaintiff,
Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan in case No. 33-9927/2020 – 1 x 100,000 + 250,000 voluntarily,
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan in case No. 33-8534/2020 recovered the smallest amount in our examples of judicial practice - only 60,000 rubles,
In case No. 33-7505/2020 in Rostov, the culprit had to pay moral damages to 2 people, 350,000 rubles each,
Smolensk Regional Court in case No. 33-2479/2020 – 1 x 100,000 rubles.

How to write a complaint

The form and content of claims are not regulated by law. This means that they are compiled in any form.

In this case, the claim must contain justification for the stated requirements. Unfounded assurances about the presence of moral suffering are not taken into account. That is, moral suffering must be documented, for example:

extracts from the medical history;
checks for the purchase of medicines;
expert opinion of a psychologist, etc.

In addition, the claim must contain some kind of background history of the legal relationship that led to moral injury. The legal relationship may be based on:

contracts with the addressee of the claim that were performed improperly by him;
a criminal offense resulting in moral suffering to the author of the claim;
illegal dismissal;
slander, etc.

It is necessary not only to indicate the legal relationship itself, but also to describe it in detail. If we are talking about an agreement, then the date of its drafting and a description of the obligations of the counterparty will be required; if we are talking about a crime, then the date of its initiation and the date of the sentence passed by the court will be required.

Also, the claim must contain a description of the moral suffering itself, its consequences and the amount required by the author of the claim for compensation for moral damage.

Otherwise, the complaint is drawn up according to the general rules for writing complaints and should include:

name (full name) of the addressee of the claim;
name (full name) and details of the author of the claim;
date and signature;
a list of documents attached to the claim.

Features of determining the amount of moral damage to a pedestrian and passenger

The amount of compensation is always determined at the discretion of the judge, taking into account the circumstances of a particular accident, the personalities of the culprit and the victim, the degree of relationship with the deceased, taking into account the requirements of reasonableness and fairness.

First. The difference between a pedestrian and a passenger is that the passenger, as a rule, is not to blame for anything (well, except perhaps for not fastening his seat belt), but the pedestrian himself can cross outside the pedestrian crossing zone and be to blame for his injuries or death. The bad news for you, if you are a driver, is that the latter’s fault will not save you from paying compensation; it will be awarded in any case, since the car is a source of increased danger, but it can be reduced due to the gross negligence of the victim himself.
Second. With some exceptions, usually a collision with a pedestrian is carried out by one car, which means that claims for moral compensation are presented to one driver (the owner of the car). And if an accident occurs as a result of a collision between two or more cars, and passengers suffer, then claims can be made against all drivers. In this case, drivers are liable jointly. This means that at least someone will be able to receive what they were awarded.

If a child is injured

The harm caused to a child's health in an accident is usually greater than for adults, due to the fact that children are small and fragile. In the event of the death of a child, both parents can apply for compensation, which increases the total amount of compensation.

Let's get back to the jurisprudence again.

The Sverdlovsk Regional Court in case No. 33-2822/2020 awarded moral damages in the amount of 200,000 rubles,
Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan in case No. 33-4444/2020 – 2 x 50,000, 1 x 25,000, 2 x 5,000,
Sverdlovsk Regional Court in case No. 33-4320/2020 – 1 x 150,000, 1 x 200,000 rubles,
Vladimir Regional Court in case No. 33-223/2020 - the recovery of moral damages was refused.

Degree of harm

The amount of compensation directly depends on the degree of damage caused. The degree, in turn, is determined by the depth of suffering, as well as:

the source of non-material damage associated with moral or physical harm;
the nature of the offense;
duration of suffering;
changing the victim's lifestyle.

Let's give an example. Accused K. was found guilty of committing a crime under Art. 111, Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. That is, for causing serious damage to health. As a result of the committed act, the victim was recognized as a disabled person of the 3rd non-working group, which influenced the court’s decision both in terms of the punishment, which was expressed in the imprisonment of the convicted person, and in terms of the amount of recovery of non-material damage. This decision was justified by the fact that the consequences of the offense had an impact on the victim’s lifestyle for the worse.

As a result, the victim was awarded 1 million rubles. Also, alimony in the amount of 20 thousand rubles was collected from the convicted person. monthly for the maintenance of a victim who has become disabled as a result of an illegal act.

What is better for the culprit: to compensate voluntarily before the trial or after?

To answer this question, you need to understand what kind of court we are talking about. There may be a trial under criminal article 264 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for causing harm to life and health, or a civil claim for moral damages.

In the first case, it is naturally better to pay before the trial through a settlement agreement, since this voluntary payment will be taken into account by the judge when making a sentence.
With a civil lawsuit, things are a little more complicated. Before the legal dispute, you can discuss the amount with the victim and, if it is real, then pay. But if the victim declares some unrealistic amount of moral compensation, then you don’t have to pay, let him try to recover this money from you through the court.

Citizens who have never encountered courts or forced collection do not understand that after a trial it is sometimes extremely difficult to get money, which is why they are so frivolous about proposals for settlement agreements and payment of a smaller amount, but immediately.

When can they refuse?

Naturally, not every claim is satisfied by the court, especially in the case of a demand for material compensation. The main motive for refusing to recognize claims is the fault of the victim, which caused the accident or work injury.

And sometimes - a criminal offense, if it was associated with excess of self-defense, when the victim was attacked. The intent of the victim, qualified in accordance with the provisions of Article 1083 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, relieves the defendant of guilt in a civil suit.

Also, a refusal may follow if it does not clearly follow from the evidence presented that moral damage arose due to the injuries received.

I am the culprit - is it possible and how to reduce the amount of moral damage?

I just mentioned this above. One of the most effective ways in 2021 to reduce the amount required from you is to enter into a settlement agreement for a smaller amount. True, you will have to pay it off immediately. Otherwise, this option will become completely uninteresting to the injured party.

The court can also reduce the size of the moral code. It is he who needs to prove that there was no suffering and anxiety, or there was, but not so strong. Maybe the plaintiff has a lot of money and lives in abundance, but the culprit has children, a wife, loans, etc., and no money. Then the court will take this fact into account and, possibly, reduce the amount of payment of moral damages.

Important note!

This article describes the basic principles of how legislation works. Meanwhile, in judicial practice everything depends on specific circumstances.
In 96% of all cases there are subtleties that can affect the outcome of the entire case.
Therefore, we recommend entrusting the matter to professionals who will study your business and select the right winning strategy.

The TonkostiDTP website employs professional road accident lawyers with experience in all major types of disputes (MTPL, guilt, administrative penalties).

Ask a lawyer

or get a free consultation by calling the hotline: 8.

What is the payment period?

After the court decision, you can pay immediately, but it is better to wait for the decision to come into force. It will come into force in a month if it is not appealed to a higher court.

The plaintiff may ask the court for immediate enforcement of the decision, but such a request will need to be supported by evidence that delay in enforcement would have adverse consequences for the plaintiff.

Well, if you decide not to pay for as long as possible, then there are no deadlines, everything will depend on your property and financial situation, the bailiffs and the actions of the collector.

How much can you sue?

First of all, monetary compensation will depend on the health status of the injured person and the degree of injury caused. It is important that when determining the amount to recover, the plaintiff uses such concepts as fairness and reasonableness. After all, the court will not be able to satisfy a claim of great value for minor damage; such compensation cannot serve as the purpose of enriching the plaintiff and he must understand this. The financial and mental state of the defendant before and after the incident is assessed and an adequate amount is determined.

Info

The claim will be satisfied only if it is well argued and has evidence indicating a high level of stress in the victim after the incident.