Compensation for damages from the correspondent is a rather common situation when dealing with international claims. Before we go into this claim story, which is not that unusual, let us explain what, or better yet, who the correspondents are.
The Green Card System regulations provide that the Bureau of the accident’s country is authorized to receive and handle claims from victims who have been injured in accidents brought on by foreign vehicles (originating from another participating country). Motor insurers may, however, also propose correspondents in other participating nations under the Green Card System.
Then, this correspondent will be in charge of handling all claims resulting from accidents involving foreign vehicles insured by the foreign motor insurer that nominated the correspondent and occurring in the country where the correspondent is designated.
In order to better understand how this system works, we prepared a brief overview of what occurred in a traffic accident in Croatia.
In this particular situation, we have four parties to the proceedings:
- Tortfeasor – from Slovenia,
- Damaged – from Serbia,
- Tortfeasors insurance – from Slovenia,
- Correspondent – from Croatia.
The accident happened on a Croatian highway when a vehicle with Slovenian license plates hit a vehicle with Serbian license plates. What would usually happen when one vehicle hits another is to submit a claim for compensation of damages to the insurance company of the tortfeasor, that is to the insurance company with whom the tortfeasor has signed an auto liability policy. However, in this situation, we determined that the Slovenian insurance company with whom the tortfeasor has an auto liability policy has a correspondent in Croatia. Based on Green Card System regulations we determined that the claim should be submitted to the correspondent in Croatia and not to the Slovenian insurance company directly.
One of the most important steps when submitting a claim is to determine to whom it should be submitted. In order for the claim to be successfully handled and settled, and for the damaged party to receive compensation for damages, submitting the claim to the right address is one of the key factors.
This is one of the things that our current clients have had trouble understanding and one of the reasons why they chose our claims services.