ACCIDENTS IN SPAIN
OR
SPANISH PERSONAL INJURY LITIGATION
If your injuries are slight you can stop reading right now, because it is not cost-effective for Anglo-Spanish Law to be taken on.
If your accident was a really serious one then Anglo-Spanish Law can provide you with a cost-effective and, potentially, very valuable service in your claim for compensation in mainland Spain, the Balearic Islands or the Canary Islands.
Except for the three years when Mr Wagner was teaching law full-time to university undergraduates he has been handling Spanish personal injury cases since 1990.
Depending on the circumstances of the case the services provided by Anglo-Spanish Law include:
1. The taking of at least one detailed written statement, and sometimes more than one as the matter progresses, from the accident victim thereby putting in writing the facts of the case, which is often extremely valuable to the legal team in Spain, to any barrister in England giving an opinion on such things as whether the case can actually be brought in England, and, of course, to the medical personnel in England who might be instructed to do a medical report.
2. Translating into English documents that come from Spain, such as the often extremely brief medical reports that Spanish hospitals issue to patients upon their discharge.
3. If, as often happens, there is already a Spanish lawyer instructed in Spain to handle the Spanish end of the action, liaise with the lawyer in Spain. If there isn’t any lawyer yet on the case in Spain, instruct someone suitably qualified to handle the Spanish end.
4. Find and instruct appropriately qualified and experienced medical personnel to do medical reports for use in Spain. This is a phenomenally difficult job as Spanish law is completely different to English law. This job often involves taking an initial medical report, rewriting it completely, getting the accident victim to see if they can spot anything that needs changing, and agreeing with the doctor the final version.
5. Generally oversee what is being done in the case insofar as one is able to from England, which, regrettably, is not as much as Anglo-Spanish Law and the clients of Anglo-Spanish Law might like, but which is at least something. Anglo-Spanish Law has sacked those Spanish lawyers who have revealed themselves to be incompetent and/or dishonest in the past, and intends to continue with that policy in the future.
6. Prepare for use in Spain evidence, in addition to the medical reports, such as evidence of earnings, that affect the amount of damages that can be obtained.
7. Prepare the powers of attorney enabling the legal team in Spain to act on behalf of the clients.
8. Generally give advice to clients on the Spanish law affecting their case.
THE COST
Each medical report for use in Spain costs very approximately £5,000.00 in legal fees and disbursements at the English end. Anglo-Spanish Law is not VAT registered and therefore does not charge VAT.
Sometimes it is not necessary to get medical reports translated into Spanish, because most highly educated people in Spain can read an English document sufficiently well to enable them to make an assessment, but if a medical report is going to be submitted to court it’ll have to be translated into Spanish by a specially qualified translator, and the cost can sometimes run into thousands of euros depending on the length and complexity of the document.
Taking a detailed first statement in a Spanish road traffic accident is often a time consuming exercise. The cost is very approximately £1,000.00.
Taking second and subsequent statements is not so time consuming. The cost is very approximately £500.00 per statement.
Preparing additional evidence for use in legal proceedings usually means redrafting the statements and adding evidence of earnings. The cost of preparing each statement is around £500.00. If they need to be submitted to the court in Spain they’ll need to be translated into Spanish, and the cost depends on the length and complexity of what needs translating into Spanish by a “traductor jurado”.
Preparing a power of attorney to enable the legal team in Spain to act on behalf of the clients in Spain is a fixed fee of £125.00 per power of attorney. To that sum needs to be added a notarisation fee of around £75.00 (plus VAT if the notary public in question is VAT registered, which Mr Wagner is not), per document. Each document needs to be legalised at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and their fee is currently £28.00 per document.
Liaising with the Spanish lawyers in Spain and generally advising the clients along the way is likely to cost very approximately £5,000.00.
If there are any medical expenses to be reclaimed, this can cost a few thousand pounds to deal with.
On past experience, the Spanish lawyers in Spain will seek to be paid a few thousand euros to start with and will want to receive a sum at the end that is calculated in accordance with the scales that their local college of lawyers has drawn up.
Whilst there is legal aid in Spain for people on what for the UK are spectacularly low incomes, it only covers some very basic representation, ie it is not a viable source of funding.
More normally people often have legal expenses insurance. Unfortunately, legal expenses insurers want reimbursing at the end of a matter, which means that, on the rules currently prevailing in Spain, clients will have to give up part of their damages in order to pay in full the lawyers, doctors and other people and/or organisations involved in their case.
It therefore follows that unless someone is seriously injured, it is not cost-effective to pursue a claim for damages in Spain.
Phone Mr Wagner on 01433-631508, preferably between 9.30 am and 2.00 pm Monday to Friday, for written terms and conditions of business to be sent to you.
The content of the website must not be taken as being part of the terms and conditions of business for the contract of services between a client and Anglo-Spanish Law. It is for information purposes only.
The contract for services is determined by any written terms sent to client and/or the general law of England, excluding the content of Anglo-Spanish Law’s website.
Anglo-Spanish Law cannot afford to and does not accept liability for the negligence, breach of contract, criminal acts, and/or breach of fiduciary duty of the people, for example, the doctors and lawyers, instructed by Anglo-Spanish Law. They are liable for their own acts, and if, for example, they make a mistake that causes a client loss, action has to be taken against them, and not against Anglo-Spanish Law.