Bill to introduce new schemes related to traffic, industrial damages

Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici yesterday said that a Bill to amend the Civil Code would introduce new schemes relating to damages in traffic or industrial accidents that were due to carelessness.

Piloting the Bill, the minister said the amendments would affect actual losses and expenses, loss of actual wages or other earnings, loss of future earnings arising from any permanent disability, non-pecuniary losses and future expenses necessary for medical treatment, care or assistance. The current legislation did not cover non-pecuniary losses.

Dr Bonnici said that the Bill took into consideration the various court cases decided in the past 40 years.

Back in 1966 there had been an amendment which removed the limit of Lm1,300. The court was thus faced with a situation where it had to establish a mechanism to determine the amount of damages awarded for an accident.

The following year, it was decided that a specialist physician would make an assessment of the injuries sustained and the court would base the sum to be awarded on his estimation. This was calculated on the percentage of disability over the earnings of 20 years. A further 20 per cent were then deducted since the victim would receive a lump sum.

Over the years, various judges did not agree with this method. Furthermore, it was argued that the sum should be calculated on the total years a person would have worked (until retirement) and not just over 20 years. Future possible promotions also had to be taken into consideration.

The minister said it was very difficult to regulate this sector and to decide what a person deserved. However, one had to analyse situations faced by courts but for which they found no answers in the current legislation.

Over the past few years, Parliament had already debated this subject. In 2002, a Bill presented was debated but did not arrive to any conclusion. A year later this Bill was represented and was agreed upon at Committee stage. In 2004 a number of clauses were published. However, the act was never brought into force since it was very difficult to establish percentages of disability through legal notices.

A draft report commissioned by the European Parliament presented a number of recommendations with regard to a European disability rating scale. It was common that medical experts in court did not agree on the percentage of disability. The Bill took into consideration the recommendations made in this report and aimed to reduce the margins of difference. This would help reduce costs and bring about more certainty in court.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the Bill was the result of five years of work. A committee led by George Hyzler had been set up in order to analyse ways in which to move forward in this sector.

The Bill was first presented as a white paper which was circulated to insurances, lawyers, procurators and doctors. A number of suggestions and amendments were sent to the committee and these had all been taken into consideration when formulating the Bill.

The Bill was introducing a number of benefits which would help this sector move forward. This was the first time that non-pecuniary damages were being introduced. These were related to moral damages.

The amendments presented in the Bill would lead to cases being decided in a shorter period of time. Furthermore there would be fewer discrepancies in the amount of damages awarded in similar cases.

The Bill would also be reducing the costs involved in various medical reports. The amendments presented would lead to increased agreement between medical experts with regard to the percentage of disability.

The Bill also acknowledged damages for cases where the injured person would require further operations in the future.

The Bill would also award damages to person whose carers are killed in accident. Similarly, relatives of a person killed in an accident would benefit.

In the 2004 Bill, it had been agreed that there should be a capping of the damages. The Bill in question laid down that a sum of €600,000 be the maximum to be awarded for loss of future earnings and non-pecuniary losses arising from permanent disability whether total or partial. A further sum of €600,000 could be granted for head of damages for future treatment.

The Bill was widening the types of disability to include sensory, neurological, psychological and other types. These also included damages to the reproductive system in both men and women.

The amendments proposed would also take into consideration cases where the person injured had been unemployed or retired.

It was not easy to economically quantify the injuries sustained by a person in an accident. Such persons would have suffered a trauma and the lengthy proceedings in court further increased the suffering. The Bill aimed to reduce the court period.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that he was open to considerations and suggestions and that he was sure that an interesting debate would follow on the subject.