Compensation from bandits - a win for our law firm

In the evening, on a rainy November day, the Firm's client was driving home in his car. On a rather sparsely traveled suburban road, he was driving behind a Peugeot, which was already old. He noticed that two vehicles, which had been following them until then, started to overtake his vehicle and the Peugeot in front of it. The first vehicle overtook the client and the Peugeot, while the second vehicle, without signalling with the handbrake (the stop lights were not on), suddenly swerved into the right lane directly in front of the client's vehicle. Unable to do anything, he only made a defensive move with the steering wheel, which had no effect. He hit the rear of the BMW, which was braking on its handbrake. The customer was quite shocked. However, what followed only reinforced this state of mind. Eight masked men armed with axe handles and baseball bats got out of the BMW and the vehicle that had overtaken the Peugeot. The terrified customer reflexively reached for the button to close the car door from the inside, which was still working despite the collision with the BMW. However, the masked bandits did not engage in conversation with our Customer, but ran towards the Peugeot. Using their ‘equipment’ they smashed the windows of the vehicle behind which our Client was driving and then proceeded to beat up its occupants. At this time our Client, keeping his mind sober, reached for his mobile phone and dialled 112 informing the Police and other services of the incident. At the same time, he took several photographs of the rear of the BMW with the number plate still holding. The hoodlums who were completing their work with the Peugeot's passengers must have noticed the flash of the customer's phone, because one of them ran up to the door of his vehicle and started jerking it open. Fortunately, the rest of the robbers had managed to get into their cars and were preparing to flee the scene of the robbery. Seeing this, the robber gave up further attempts to get into our client's car, ran to the BMW and drove off with his companions.

Unknown perpetrators

The eight individuals who caused the collision with our client's car on that November evening and assaulted the Peugeot's passengers were subject to criminal proceedings, which unfortunately did not reveal their identities. However, thanks to the photographs taken during the assault, the owner of the BMW vehicle was identified, and it was also established that the vehicle was insured at the time of the incident.

Compensation for the robbery

The fact that the perpetrators' vehicle was insured allowed a successful claim to be brought against its insurer. At the conciliation stage, the insurer refused to accept liability for our client's damages resulting from this unusual incident. On behalf of our client, we demanded that the insurer not only pay compensation for the almost completely destroyed vehicle, but also compensate for the damage to our client's health and psyche. The courts of both instances upheld the Law Firm's arguments, finding the insurer liable and awarding the claims asserted in full.

Undoubtedly, situations such as the one presented do not happen every day. They belong, fortunately, to a small margin. Nevertheless, they can cause unimaginable stress and fear of repercussions if we ‘do something about it’. Our client, however, showed great courage and decided to react. Despite the fact that the perpetrators themselves were not apprehended and prosecuted, he obtained the full compensation and redress he was entitled to.