A car accident which also counts as a work accident? Attorney explains

As we’ve written in previous articles, work accidents can occur in a number of circumstances, one of them being a road accident which is a work accident. A work accident can take place in the workplace, as well as while commuting from home to the workplace, and back to the employee’s home. This article explains the implications of a car accident which is also a work accident and the steps you should take to receive appropriate compensation – who you should contact, and the possible lawsuit tracks.

Defining a Car Accident Which is also a Work Accident:

In general, a car accident taking place during work is defined as “a road accident which is also a work accident,” combining several laws, which we will go into below. In order to pursue the rights available to you, including compensation and funds payable under such circumstances, it’s important to know when a car accident is also considered a work accident.

As noted above, a road accident taking place on the way to the workplace from home, or back home from the workplace, or during work, is in principle considered a road-work accident, in which a number of steps should be duly taken, to obtain the compensation you deserve and that is payable from the correct entities.

Lawsuit tracks:

A number of laws come into play with regards to a car-work accident. The first, of course, is the Road Accident Victims Compensation Law, 5735-1975, which is the law under which you must first file your claim, under the “exclusivity of cause of action” principle provided in Section 8 of this law. The Section prescribes that if a road accident takes place, causing bodily damage to the injured party, then they must first act according to the Compensation Law, of course assuming compliance with basic conditions, including mandatory insurance and a driver’s license.

At the same time, there is another track for filing a claim against the National Insurance Institute of Israel, pursuant to the National Insurance Law [Consolidated Version] 5755-1995, under which the injured party must request the employer to produce them a NII/250 form, which is referral form for medical treatment for a work-injured employee, under which the injured party can obtain medical care, since the accident was also a work injury, as aforesaid. In addition, you must also submit to the National Insurance Institute a claim for injury allowance and notification of work injury, also called a NII/211 form, signed by the employer, in order for the National Insurance Institute to also recognize the injury as a work accident and compensate the injured party for their absence from work, comprising 75% of the monthly salary, up to a maximum of 91 days.

Following the disability period, if the injured party believes that they have remained disabled as a result of the road-work accident, whether temporarily or permanently, they can submit a claim to determine work disability degree to the National Insurance Institute (through form NII/200). In this case, the injured party is invited to be examined by a medical committee on behalf of the National Insurance Institute in order to determine whether or not they remain temporarily or permanently disabled.

Section 6b of the Compensation Law:

This Section provides as follows:

“In the event that, pursuant to any Law, the disability degree determined for the injured party due to the injury caused to him in that same road accident, before hearing the evidence in a claim pursuant to this Law, such determination shall also be binding for the purpose of the claim pursuant to this Law; however, the Court shall have the right to allow a litigant in a claim under this Law to bring evidence in contradiction with such aforesaid determination, if it was satisfied that this should be permitted in the interest of due justice, for special reasons to be specified.”

The meaning of this Section with regards to this matter is that in case the National Insurance Institute committees determine permanent disability for the injured party, then this disability shall also be binding for the purposes of the civil claim for compensation, filed under the Compensation Law, and in such circumstances, the injured party would not be permitted to file a motion to appoint one or more medical experts, along with the civil claim for compensation, but rather they will be able to dispute the disability determined by the National Insurance Institute’s committees by bringing evidence in contradiction with the foregoing determination, as provided by the above Section.

The deduction principle:

In order to obtain compensation pursuant to the Compensation Law, you must submit a letter of claim to the mandatory insurance company of the vehicle involved in the accident, which you drove or rode. One of the questions investigated by the insurance company is whether the vehicle accident is also a work accident, and if so, what is the rate of the payment received from the National Insurance Institute. This information is very important for the insurance company, since the injured party can’t receive “double” compensation, both from the National Insurance Institute and from the mandatory insurance company, due to the same damage. This is based on the principle which serves as the basis behind tort law, of restoring the injured party’s condition to the way it was prior to the injury (restitution integrum) as much as possible, which is not so simple, but is measured by a number of entities and types of damage determined in Israeli ruling precedent.

Therefore, after the calculation of compensation payable as a result of the injured party’s damages by the mandatory insurance company, pursuant to the Compensation Law, the insurance company performs what is called a “deduction of the National Insurance Institute’s receipts,” meaning it deducts the total amount of funds or receipts obtained from the National Insurance Institute on account of the accident, from the total amount of compensations payable to the injured party as a result of the road accident.

Sometimes, and following the performance of the aforesaid deduction formula, the result is that the compensation payable to the injured party is “swallowed up” by the National Insurance Institute’s receipts.

Notional deduction:

This deduction is made with respect to the National Insurance Institute’s payments – the Work Injury Division, from the compensation payable from the mandatory insurance company, meaning from the simultaneous/additional track of the compensation claim, even if the injured party has not contacted the National Insurance Institute to obtain the payments payable by it as aforesaid, i.e. file claim for the payment of compensation for injury, as well as disability grants. In other words, the mandatory insurance company can notionally deduct the amounts that the injured party could have obtained from the National Insurance Institute, had they contacted it, both with respect to the injury and with respect to disability grants and/or pension.

If you have any other questions, or if you need legal assistance from an Israeli tort lawyer, you are welcome to contact us. Our offices are located in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.