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If you have suffered serious injuries in a road traffic accident in France, you will be asked to undergo a medical assessment (expertise médicale). For many foreign victims, this word alone sounds unfamiliar and somehow intimidating. Yet the medical assessment is not an ordeal: it is the step that gives you the opportunity to have all your injuries, and their consequences on your life, fully recognized.
What Is the Medical Assessment?
The assessment is carried out by one doctor, appointed by a court, or by two French doctors, whose role is to describe your injuries and to measure their effects. It covers, among other things, your periods of hospitalization and incapacity, your pain and suffering, your permanent functional impairment, your need for help from another person, the impact on your work, and any adaptations required for your home or vehicle. The final report serves as the basis for calculating your compensation.
Once your condition has stabilized (consolidation), a final assessment is held. Before that, one or more provisional assessments may take place.
How Does It Work in Practice?
The court appointed expert or the two experts first review your medical records, then listens to you describe your symptoms and your day-to-day difficulties, and finally carries out a physical examination. Your own medical advisor attends alongside you and discusses each point. The judicial expert or both experts then draft a report.
Living Abroad Is Not an Obstacle
Victims who live outside France often fear having to travel back for each step. In certain circumstances, and in particular for severely disabled victims, the assessment can take place at your home, even abroad. A home visit also allows the experts to see your living conditions for themselves, which is often decisive in assessing your need for care and home adaptations.
We Handle Every Step for You
Le Tutour Avocats takes care of the entire process, so that you can focus on your recovery:
- gathering and translating your medical records from your home country;
- selecting an experienced independent medical advisor to assist you;
- organizing the assessment, whether in France or at your home, and arranging interpreters where needed;
- preparing you for the examination and reviewing the expert’s report
- Securing provisional payments
Do not let the procedure intimidate you. Contact us as soon as you receive a notice of medical examination, or even before: the earlier we are involved, the better your interests are protected.