Lawyers for damages in Regensburg and Landshut
We advise and represent you around the enforcement or defense of claims for damages.
Lawyers Gabler & Hendel – Your law firm in tort law
Our law office is at your side in the entire compensation law. For accident victims, we also take over the ongoing settlement of claims with the opposing (liability) insurer. Simply contact us by phone, email or arrange a briefing appointment at one of our offices in Regensburg or Landshut. Our lawyers help you fast and uncomplicated!
Table of Contents
Inform now
News on the subject of tort law
Here you will find our latest articles on the topic.
What is the right to damages?
We use the term compensation law as a collective term for a large number of individual areas of law and life circumstances.
Whether you are involved in a car accident or an accident at work, whether you or your contractor has injured in a harmful way duties arising from a contract between them, or whether they are perpetrators or victims of personal injury, it is basically from the point of view of compensation law always to clarify two questions:
- Is one person basically liable to the other? (So-called liability basically) Here it is clarified whether anything has to be paid.
- What is the compensation to be granted? (so-called liability of the amount) At this point, it is decided how much the payment will ultimately be.
Liability basically can arise for a variety of reasons. A distinction must be made between so-called contractual claims for damages and so-called statutory claims for damages. The former presuppose that there is a contractual relationship between the parties and arise when one of the parties violates their contractual obligations. For example, a seller is generally liable for damages if he does not deliver the goods ordered by the buyer or only late. Contractual claims for damages can arise from practically any contractual relationship, eg also in tenancy law, in works contract law, in building law, in employment contract or employment law, etc.
Legal claims for damages arise, as the name suggests, directly from the law. This means that there is no need for a contractual relationship between the injured party and the injured party. Statutory claims for damages can be found, inter alia, in §§ 823 ff. BGB (so-called tort law or also right of tort), the product liability law or the Road Traffic Act, which contains important regulations for traffic accidents.
If liability is confirmed in principle, it is only clear that something has to be paid at all.
Only in the context of the assessment of the liability of the amount is then decided how high the payment will ultimately be.
In German law, compensation primarily serves the purpose of placing the injured party in the way he would have been without the damaging act (so-called in rem restitution). For example, in the event of damage to property, the injured party may demand that the party responsible for the damage repair the damaged object.
A so-called punitive damages, as known in US law (so-called punitive damages), is not provided for in the local legal system. Nonetheless, that does not mean that in German law there are no other forms of compensation in addition to in rem restitution. An important case for this - namely the so-called pain relief - regulates § 253 BGB, for example, the victim of a personal injury, the possibility to demand a monetary payment to compensate for the pain suffered. Another important rule, which allows under certain conditions (injury of a person, damage to a thing) to demand a monetary compensation, is § 249 para. 2 BGB.
Should a lawyer / specialist lawyer be called in for damages?
Absolutely! Even though the law on damages may initially appear to be simply structured, depending on the case, one can quickly encounter sometimes complex questions that can only be answered reliably by a competent lawyer / specialist lawyer.
This applies - not only but above all - for the "classic" of tort law: the traffic accident. The processing of the consequences of a traffic accident is often much more complex than the layman suspects.
Especially in case of personal injury unforeseen consequential damages can occur and the signature under a pre-formulated by the insurer compensation offer can have devastating consequences. Often underestimated topics are also the variety of different damage positions (eg compensation for pain, loss of income, budgetary damage, increased needs, etc.) as well as the relationship between the claims of the injured party against the injured party and claims against third party service providers (eg against a professional association).
The handling of allegedly easy-to-use pain callout tables also needs to be learned, which is why it is better left to a specialized lawyer / specialist lawyer. Depending on the individual case and severity level, values of 0, - up to several thousand euros, can be taken from the relevant compensation tables, for example for the typical "whiplash" accident sequence. Those who set too high endanger their claim; If you start too low, you'll end up giving away cash! Legal know-how and a sense of proportion are required here.
