My wife was in a traffic accident a couple of weeks ago and I am wondering what level of compensation we could ask for and what we could expect to get.
My wife (riding a scooter) took off from a light that had just turned green and was hit by a car that came through the red light.
(My wife saw the car slowing down for the red light and as that was the only approaching car she felt safe to go immediately when her light turned green)
She suffered lower back (spinal) injury.
The doctor at the hospital signed a certificate for a month off of work.
My wife was taken to hospital in an ambulance, and the police attended the scene and took photos, measurements and statements.
We met to talk about compensation with the lady driving the car (who apart from spending some time at the hospital immediately after the accident had not been in contact with us - none of the customary fruit!) and a guy from her insurance company (third party).
It was really a little early to meet with them as everything has not been finalised, but we donāt really understand the system here.
Anyway, the insurance guy said that there were no witnesses (none that stopped anyway) and no cameras, and said that it was just my wifeās word against the ladyās word. (which kind of infuriated me because I thought the guilt was already established, but apparantly the lady told the police that her light was green, even though she told my wife that she didnāt see the light.)
I told the insurance guy (who went into some prattle I didnāt fully understand about he was the guy who was going to decide how much compensation we would get and that we couldnāt prove the lady was at fault) that if he would agree to pay for medical fees/medicine, scooter repairs, taxi fares (my wife canāt sit, so she canāt ride a scooter until she is better), and for loss of income that we could settle there and then. (This would amount to $70,000 - 100,000)
He continued to prattle on about this and that - generally just upsetting my wife and making me angry. So I told him the terms we were willing to settle on and that if we didnāt settle on that day and he continued to make trouble for us and we had to work hard to get compensation out of him that I would get legal advice (and add that to the claim) as well as ask for hardship money for both me and my wife, emotional compensation for my wife - and pretty well what ever else I could think of.
He continued with his intimidation tactics and said our proof of income wasnāt official enough.
I told him that we would get something more official, but would he agree to compensate.
In short he told us to get something more official and then we could talk about it.
So I gathered our documents and told him we would contact him with a considerably higher claim when my wife was back to work and we left.
The lady came and visited us later that morning and apologised for how the guy had talked to us (although she is not admitting fault it is clear she knows she is at fault and she is feeling guilty - but still lying). She told us that after the meeting the guy was going on about how my wife wasnāt really badly injured and that as a teacher she only needs to talk and could go back to work if she wants, but that she just doesnāt want to.
I felt that we offered an extremely light package for him to take and he was just being a bit of a :loco:
What I need to know now, before we go and sink ourselves into legal fees, is what kind of compensation could we ask for and how much could we reasonably ask for. Back in a western country I am sure we could after all the shouting get a minimum of about $1,000,000 NT (the injury has had my wife confined to bed for 10 days, she can get up now but is still in constant pain and has difficulty even walking, and it is one of those injuries that is going to trouble you for the rest of your life)
Injury?
Emotional?
Hardship?
Spouseās hardship?
Legal fees?
Anything else???
In the first instance, we would like to get the appropriate level of compensation.
In the second instance, I would like to send a strong message to the insurance guy that he should have taken our more than reasonable offer in the first place and not put my wife through all the added trauma! :fume:
Also, does anyone know a good lawyer in Taichung for this kind of thing who can speak English, and could we add the legal fees into the compensation claim?
Many thanks in advance.
Ditch