Car accident compensation news
04/11/2009

Court ruling brings car crash claim equality

A judge in an Indian court has made a landmark ruling for the country's car accident compensation law, saying that there should be no gender discrimination when calculating the size of settlements.

"Whether a man or a woman who was earning for his or her family dies, the value of life and contribution to the family has to be accepted equally. Death of a male or a female is equal in the eyes of God and Law," said the judge ruling on the car accident compensation case.

The case had been brought about in response to an insurance company's decision to offer a reduced sum to the family of a woman killed in a car crash.

"It is unfortunate that in case of death of a man, his financial contribution is accepted without any objection but women's financial contribution is objected to repeatedly. It may again show a general bias of society and men to think in that manner which as a judicial officer I cannot allow," the judge said.

Adding, "Any argument by any party that the husbands or the children do not depend on their working wives and mothers respectively is contrary to today's social reality where a woman is not only a homemaker at home but she works harder in that she goes out and earns for better living of the family."

India's personal injury solicitors have welcomed the car accident compensation ruling as a victory for justice.