Personal Injury & Compensation Law in UAE

What does mean by the word Personal Injury?

In broad terms, personal injury includes any injury that is suffered physically, mentally, or emotionally by a person as a consequence of the careless or deliberate actions of another person. The victim is eligible for the claim damages if he/she has experienced a personal injury as a result of the other party’s negligence, carelessness, or intentional misconduct. For example, a taxi driver runs over a stop sign and crashes with another car; the driver of the taxi will be legally accountable to recompense for the injuries that arise from the accident. In such a case, a claim for psychological injury could also be made, despite it is not directly connected with any physical injury. There are a set of rules which specify the situations under which claims for such can be achieved.

Personal Injuries may arise from

Vehicle Accidents
Workplace Accidents
Airplane Deaths
Medical Malpractice
Defamation
Libel or Slander
Dangerous Drugs
Product Liability
Wrongful Deaths

The fundamental principle behind this is – if the injury is caused to you by the negligence, carelessness, or misconduct of another one, then you are eligible to receive recompense from the one, who is responsible for your loss.

In line with the type of accident and the degree of injuries sustained, various types of cases can be instituted. With respect to civil action, if the party is recognized legally accountable for causing the injury, either he or the business entity is liable to pay the damages as a remedy. With respect to criminal action, if the party is recognized legally accountable for causing the injury, the party will be liable to sanctions like imprisonment, fines, and community service.

Personal injury is connected to tortious liability and is generally regulated by the law of negligence, which decrees a rational standard of care due between the parties and the liability when the violation of the rational care by one party leads to the injury of the other. This also involves cases if a person is, for instance, injured by a product that is defective. In such circumstances, it is not required to establish negligence or carelessness, since, in such kind of a product defect case, a strict liability legal concept applies.

COMPENSATION AGAINST PERSONAL INJURY

The compensation amount that can be retrieved will depend on the nature of the injury and subsequent costs and losses. The injury must be an identifiable one and must involve a clear chain activity that leads to the pain and misery of the claimant. It is not easy to distinguish the pre-existing medical conditions and the multiple potential factors to the injury so that expert medical evidence is usually called in to tackle these issues.

The compensation for physical injury or psychological injury is normally limited to an amount equivalent to 2 year’s pay but can be included loss of earning and cost of future cases.

The UAE also holds a no-fault scheme of compensation for injured, who is incapable to prove the negligence of the other party, which ensures that the party may get some compensation, possibly an amount up to AED 35,000 for major injuries, despite no one is at fault. It sets out the basis of accountability for personal injury claims.

RELEVANT LEGISLATION & PROVISIONS IN DUBAI (PERSONAL INJURY CLAIMS

Federal Law No: 05 of 1985 – Provisions of the Civil Code

Article 282

It sets out the basis of accountability for personal injury claims. The provision says, if any person harms, the perpetrator, who lacks discretion, is responsible to compensate for the harm.

‘Harm’ is a general term and implies several actions like the harmful act, unlawful act, action contrary to the law, or action prohibited under the law. It is the prudence of the judge to determine where this action is harmful or not; nevertheless, the standard of care decrees that there’s a responsibility to not cause harm, which demands the party to exercise the utmost care of a careful man.

Although the judge has a broad discretion to decide whether specific actions result to harm, the burden of proof fall upon the claimant. To be more precise, for the court to acknowledge a specific act as harmful, the ensuing components are to be substantiated by the claimant.

the act of the other person, (whether positive or negative)
the damage caused to the claimant; and
the informal connection between the two

Article 292

Article 292 defines the method of calculating the damages, which should be assessed according to the amount of damage the claimant sustained along with the loss in profit, supplied the lost profit forms a normal result of the act. However, the provision disappoints to provide true guidance for the courts for determining the number of harms/damages to be granted, necessitating significant prudence upon the judge to determine the quantum of damages. Under Article 389, further, it is presented that if the compensation amount is not determined under a contract of provision of law, the judge can calculate the damages in an amount that is equivalent to the damage suffered at the time of the incident. With regard to the award of damages, the court has efficient unfettered prudence in determining the amount to be granted to the claimant.

Article 293

As per the Article 293, moral harm is involved within the scope of harm and the following right to compensation. Article 293 is significant with regards to the claim and indemnity for personal injury. This Article also hold out the right to claim the damages for moral harm resulted to the family by the reason of the death of the victim. This Article also sets a restriction on transferring the right to acquire the indemnity to a third party with respect to the moral harm, until and unless such amount has been calculated by a final judicial order or by a mutual agreement. The provisions as per this article could be put to use by the claimant to dispute that he must receive compensation against his injuries, the subsequent loss of profit, and the moral harm as well suffered by the claimant.

CLASSES OF DAMAGES WHICH COULD BE CLAIMED UNDER PERSONAL INJURY CLAIMS IN DUBAI

Physical & Material Damages

In terms of medical injuries, physical damages are categorized as ‘bodily injury’ as per UAE Law, which is comprehensively defined as ‘anything that affects the health of a human being. On the other hand, material damage is the loss sustained by the claimant due to bodily injury. Though both physical and material are related, they are categorized as separate in matters of indemnity. In such case, even if the claimant could prove only physical damage, he can be compensated without providing adequate evidence for material damages suffered. As per the UAE Law, the right to safeguard one’s bodily integrity, has been recognized and secured as a basic and inalienable right.

Moral Damages

As mentioned above, as per Article 293, moral harm also covers within the scope of personal injury. Moral harm comprises of violation of liberty, dignity, honour, financial credit or social standing of another. With respect to moral damages, it can be granted for any damage resulting psychological pain or affecting the honour, dignity or loss of financial standing.

Damages for Income Loss

As stated above under Article 292, it acknowledges the loss of income as a part of damages. Nevertheless, it also offers that for the court to calculate the loss of income as part of the damages, it calls for the natural result of the harm sustained and is justified.

Damages for Lost Opportunity

Damages for lost opportunity and damages for income loss are closely connected classes of damages. Nevertheless, loss of income mainly includes monetary loss, whilst lost opportunity demands both moral opportunity and monetary loss. In both the cases, the court exercises the same procedure and ensures the claim is justified.

Probable Damages in Future

With respect to this, there is no any legal provision for awarding compensation for future damages, unless the complainant proves that these are certain expenses that will be incurred in future as well. It could be claimed, in such a situation, where the complainant could prove that he must under undergo specific medication in the future due to the injuries. Nevertheless, the claimant can establish a new reason for a loss that happens at some point in the future.

ASSESSMENT METHOD FOR QUANTUM OF DAMAGES

The damages are computed based on the direct or indirect relation between the act accused of and the damage caused to the complainant. As already mentioned, Article 289 and Article 292 offers broad discretion to the courts in calculating the quantum of damages. The courts ensure all the heads of the claims are addressed while computing the damages and generally take certain factors into consideration, which are as follows;

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