The European Court of Justice has ruled that a British man can claim personal injury compensation in this country even though the accident that injured him occurred in France.
On August 29th, 2007, Deo Homawoo was hit by a motor vehicle in France. He suffered brain injury, damage to his lung, fractures to his leg and a broken wrist in the accident. However, EU law says that residents of a member state must make their personal injury claim in the country where the accident occurred and this would have left Homawoo with a smaller payout than if his personal injury solicitor filed the claim in the UK.
However, there was a lot of confusion over the start date for this EU policy. The official EU document stated two dates – 19th August 2007 and 11th January 2009.
If the first date were deemed correct, Mr Homawoo would indeed have had to file his claim in France and would have received a less generous payout.
But, the ECJ judges have ruled that the effective date for the policy was 11th January 2009 and therefore Mr Homawoo can raise his claim in this country.
It’s not only Mr Homawoo who is set to benefit from this ruling. Any Britons who were injured in an accident in an EU member state between 19th August 2007 and 11th January 2009 are now entitled to claim personal injury compensation in this country.