Damages awarded under Scottish law for accident in Romania

Raymond Wylie approached Digby Brown after he had an accident in Romania whilst on a business trip.

He had suffered a wedge fracture to his spine and was still in significant and limiting pain almost 3 years after his accident.

Mr Wylie was no longer able to do certain tasks at work and had stopped being able to do DIY around his house, which was his main hobby before his accident.

Mr Wylie had not approached personal injury solicitors before because he did not think he would be able to claim compensation for an accident abroad.

Three years to claim after a road accident in Romania

Similar to Scotland, Romania allows injured persons to raise an action seeking compensation for up to three years after the date of an accident. This varies from country to country, even in Europe.

Digby Brown raised a Court action against the insurers of the driver responsible for Mr Wylie's accident.

The Court action was raised in Scotland and the relevant Court documentation was then served upon the defender in Romania.

Romanian insurer denied responsibility for the accident abroad

Initially, the Romanian insurer denied responsibility for the accident.

Only three weeks before the Court hearing, the defender admitted that an accident had happened but they would not admit that Mr Wylie had been injured in the accident.

Digby Brown argued that Scottish law, not Romanian law, should apply to the claim

The Romanian insurer also wanted to apply Romanian Law, which is very different to Scottish Law, to all aspects of the claim.

Digby Brown successfully argued that Scottish law should apply to the accident and the quantification of damages and that if Scottish law was not to be applied then the Court should decide what types of compensation, called "heads of claim", were available to Mr Wylie in Romania.

From Mr Wylie’s perspective, this meant that he could obtain the same amount of damages as he would have had his accident taken place in Scotland, even when applying Romanian law.

Mr Wylie was awarded the same amount of damages as he would have been if his accident had happened in Scotland.

Mr Wylie was awarded £54,325.82