Claiming compensation from the insurance company for traffic accident injuries

If you have been injured in a traffic accident that was not your fault, you have the right to be compensated for personal damages by the responsible vehicle's insurance company. The claim is directed straight at that company (direct action under article 7 of the texto refundido de la Ley sobre responsabilidad civil y seguro en la circulación de vehículos a motor (consolidated text of the Law on civil liability and insurance in the circulation of motor vehicles)), not at the driver personally.

The non-at-fault driver, vehicle occupants, pedestrians, cyclists and generally any injured party can claim. If you were partly responsible, the compensation may be reduced proportionally, but good faith occupants usually receive the full amount.

Injuries are assessed using the scale introduced by Ley 35/2015, which distinguishes 2 main blocks. Temporary injuries cover the period from the accident until medical stabilisation or discharge: they are calculated per day: every day carries a basic loss and, if your activities were limited, the day is compensated as moderate, severe or very severe depending on how much your personal life and autonomy were affected, and healthcare expenses and loss of earnings (lucro cesante) are added.

Permanent sequels are the consequences that remain once the healing process has finished. They are valued in points, according to a medical table and the victim's age, and include aesthetic damage and future expenses (rehabilitation, prosthetics, help from another person or adaptation of your home or vehicle when applicable).

The scale amounts are updated every 1 January with the previous year's CPI (as now established by Ley 5/2025 (Law 5/2025), which replaced the previous index), except the loss of earnings and third-party assistance tables, which are revised separately. In 2026, each day of injury is compensated with 39,20 € if basic, 67,96 € if moderate, 98,02 € if severe and 130,69 € if very severe. In your claim we calculate them with the current year's amounts.

The starting point is to record the accident. The amicable accident report signed by both drivers or, if the Guardia Civil or police intervened, the police report (atestado) is valid. It is advisable to report the incident to your own insurance company as soon as possible.

To assess the injuries, medical reports are needed: the emergency room report from the day of the accident, follow-up and rehabilitation reports, and the discharge or stabilisation report that determines the permanent sequels. You should also keep receipts for expenses (pharmacy, physiotherapy, travel) and, if you were on sick leave, your work leave certificates. Managora gathers and organises all this documentation for you.

Before going to court, it is mandatory to submit a prior claim to the insurance company (article 7). It is a procedural requirement: without it, the lawsuit may be dismissed. The claim identifies the injured party and describes how the accident happened, and since Ley 5/2025 (Law 5/2025) it does not need to be quantified.

The company has 3 months to respond. If it acknowledges liability and the damage is quantified, it must make you a reasoned compensation offer, detailed and with the amounts. If it cannot, it must give you a reasoned response explaining why. When you accept the offer, the insurance company must pay or deposit the compensation within five days. If it lets the three months pass without a reasoned offer and has no justified cause, or does not pay or deposit within five days the offer you accepted, late payment interest accrues in your favour.

If you do not agree with the company's medical assessment, you can request the report of the Institutes of Legal Medicine, paid for by the insurer, a route reinforced by Ley 5/2025 (Law 5/2025). Managora drafts the claim and submits it on your behalf.

The action to claim expires in 1 year. That time limit is not usually counted from the day of the crash, but from the medical discharge or the stabilisation of the injuries, which is when the real extent of the damage and the permanent sequels is known.

Submitting the prior claim interrupts the expiration period: the time limit stops and starts again (another full 1 year) when the insurance company reliably notifies you of its offer or its reasoned response. Even so, it is advisable not to exhaust the time limits. If you let the 1 year pass without claiming, you lose the right to compensation.

Managora takes care of the entire process from start to finish. We assess your injuries using the current scale, gather the medical reports and expense receipts, draft the prior claim and submit it to the insurance company on your behalf.

If the offer is not enough, we propose the judicial route to you as a separate engagement. You can start your claim and see the service amount on the service page.