It may feel like personal injury attorneys in the US never get a break. The field is incredibly competitive, courts are slow to settle claims, and some states have just months to successfully file a claim. What you may not realize, however, is our current personal injury system is much more desirable than PI systems many other countries. Here’s a little more information on how personal injury claims work around the world.
Thailand—Similar to Us, Just Less
Many components of Thai personal injury law are similar to ours. In Thailand, a personal injury case consists of some kind of “wrongful act” causing harm to one person due to a negligent person (or entity). Unlike American law, Thai PI claimants cannot claim any damages for pain and suffering. Thai settlements are limited to actual damages, such as lost wages or medical bills. Thailand also has a strict statute of limitations with just one year to file a claim after the accident occurs. PI claimants in Maine have a full six years to file a claim!
China—Hope You’re Not Older…
China has a high number of auto accidents, with more than 220,000 people dying in car crashes per year. Unfortunately, families of the deceased and those with serious injuries may not receive a lot of compensation. You can receive some payments for medical bills and lost income, but only if your employer reduced your pay due to your injuries. Chinese employees with paid time off will not receive any compensation, and courts will actually check with employers to see if any lost wages are due.
Disability and death compensation use a complicated formula for damages. The standard formula used in Chinese courts is A x B x C. “A” is the amount of yearly disposable income the average Chinese national has in the area where the accident occurs. Someone involved in a crash in Shanghai will be entitled to a much higher settlement than those in a rural city. This is often around $5,000 USD for major cities.
“B” is a disability percentage. A minor disability would receive 10%, while a death or something utterly catastrophic could receive 100%. “C” represents the claimant’s age. All claimants under age 60 will receive a value of 20 for C. For every year a claimant is over age 20, the coefficient for C will be reduced by 1, but the value of C will not be reduced below 5.
For example: Let’s say Wang is a 45-year-old man hit by a bus in rural China. The average yearly disposable income in the city where he files his claim is $1,500. He loses the loss of use of his legs, so his disability percentage is set high at 80%. Wang would receive $24,000. If Wang were 70 years old, however, he’d only receive $12,000 for the same injury.
Mexico—Fat Chance
Mexico has some of the toughest personal injury laws in the world. There aren’t even any personal injury juries in Mexico—all settlements are awarded by a single judge. All Mexican personal injury claims are calculated based on how much the typical Mexico day worker earns (about $6 per day). You may be able to receive some medical bill compensation in Mexico, but it would not be possible to receive any damages for pain and suffering or punitive damages. This means that all wrongful death claims in Mexico are capped around $15,000, regardless of the income of the deceased.
While the United States’ personal injury system is not without flaw, we do have more options than many countries across the world!
Sources Used:
https://www.siam-legal.com/thailand-law/what-is-a-thailand-personal-injury-case/ http://www.sinoblawg.com/?p=202 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/01/18/a-surprising-map-of-countries-that-have-the-most-traffic-deaths/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d9ed4684d14d http://www.travelweekly.com/Mark-Pestronk/Suing-in-Mexico-not-a-gainful-proposition-for-injured-tourists