Compensation after a road accident in Belgium: what are you entitled to?

After a road accident, what you most want to know is who will pay for your damage and how much you can recover. Compensation is not limited to repairing your car. Your pain, your loss of earnings, the help you need at home and the cost of doctors and physiotherapy can also be compensated.

Belgian law starts from a simple principle: anyone who suffers loss through someone else’s fault must be compensated in full. In practice, the road to that compensation runs through insurers, medical assessments and sometimes the court. In this article we set out the main lines. What you should do immediately after the accident is explained in our article car accident in Belgium: what to do?.

What are you entitled to after a road accident?

The starting point is full compensation: you must be put back in the position you would have been in without the accident. Not worse off, but not better off either.

This means two things. Any loss that results from the accident counts. And you decide yourself what you do with the compensation. If you do not spend the money for the repair of your car at a garage, you do not lose your right to it.

The loss must, however, be certain and you must prove it. A supposition or a purely theoretical risk is not enough. Future loss can be compensated if it is established that it will occur.

Which rules apply: Book 6 of the Civil Code or the former Article 1382?

Since 1 January 2025, non-contractual liability has been governed by Book 6 of the Civil Code. These rules apply to accidents that happened on or after that date. For an accident before 2025, the court still applies the former Article 1382 et seq. of the Civil Code.

In substance, less changes for victims than you might think. Book 6 mainly confirms what the case law had already accepted for years:

• the loss covers both the economic and non-economic consequences of the accident (Article 6.24);
• compensation must be full (Articles 6.30 and 6.31);
• the loss is assessed at a date as close as possible to payment (Article 6.32);
• future personal injury can be compensated by an annuity, a lump sum or a flat-rate amount (Article 6.34);
• a fault on the part of the victim can reduce the compensation (Article 6.20).

Who pays for your loss?

The motor liability insurer of the person at fault

In most cases it is not the driver who pays, but his or her liability insurer (the compulsory motor insurance). You have a direct right of action against that insurer: you can approach it directly, without first suing the driver (Article 150 of the Insurance Act of 4 April 2014).

If the person at fault was driving uninsured, or is unknown because he or she drove off, you can turn to the Motor Guarantee Fund (Fonds commun de garantie automobile).

Article 29bis: vulnerable road users and passengers

If you are injured as a pedestrian, cyclist or passenger, you do not have to prove any fault by the driver. Article 29bis of the Motor Insurance Act obliges the insurer of the motor vehicle involved to compensate your personal injury and your clothing. All the details are in our article on the vulnerable road user and Article 29bis.

Your own insurance policies

• Comprehensive cover (omnium). If you have comprehensive cover, your own insurer can quickly pay for the damage to your car, regardless of who was liable. It then recovers that amount from the person at fault. What comprehensive cover does not pay, such as your excess or loss of use, you claim yourself from the other party.
• Legal expenses insurance (protection juridique). Legal expenses insurance pays the costs of your lawyer and of experts. If there are proceedings, you are free to choose your own lawyer.
• Driver insurance. If you were the driver yourself and at fault, you receive nothing from the other party. Driver insurance can then cover your own personal injury.
• Health insurance fund (mutuelle) and occupational accident insurer. They first pay their statutory benefits and then recover them from the person at fault. You only claim what they do not cover.

Which types of loss can you claim?

Material damage

This is all damage to your property and the costs you had to incur: the repair or replacement of your vehicle, towing and storage costs, a hire car, damaged clothing, a broken mobile phone or glasses. For the vehicle itself, loss of use and sometimes depreciation are added. More details in our article on car damage, loss of use and depreciation.

Personal injury: temporary and permanent

With physical injuries, a distinction is made between two periods:

• The temporary period runs from the accident until consolidation: the point at which your condition stops improving and becomes stable.
• The permanent period begins after consolidation. The limitations that remain are expressed as a percentage of permanent incapacity.

In both periods, the medical expert examines three areas of your life:

Area	What is compensated?
Personal	Pain, discomfort, reduced enjoyment of life, leisure activities that are no longer possible
Household	Cooking, cleaning, shopping, looking after children
Economic	Loss of earnings, greater effort at work, poorer prospects on the job market

There are also specific heads of loss, such as aesthetic damage (scars, a limp), exceptional pain, the loss of a school year and help from third parties. The amounts usually awarded for these are set out in the Indicative Table (Tableau indicatif). We go through them in our article on the Indicative Table for personal injury.

Non-material loss

Non-material (moral) loss is the non-financial side of the accident: pain, anxiety, grief, a life turned upside down. Where there are injuries, this loss is largely included in the compensation for personal incapacity. In the event of death, relatives can claim their own non-material loss. See our article on compensation for relatives.

Costs

Medical costs not reimbursed by the health insurance fund, travel to the doctor and physiotherapist, administrative costs and the costs of your own medical or technical adviser also count. Since 2002, the Court of Cassation has accepted that the fees of a personal expert form part of the loss.

How do you prove your personal injury?

The medical assessment

For personal injury, a medical assessment is almost always necessary. A medical expert examines you and establishes which injuries you have, when you are consolidated and which percentages of incapacity remain. The expert’s report largely determines the amount of your compensation.

There are three forms:

• Unilateral. The insurer’s medical adviser examines you alone. He or she works for the insurer and is therefore not a neutral expert. The Court of Cassation ruled on 24 September 2021 that such a unilateral report only has the value of a witness statement, which the court assesses freely. You are not bound by that report.
• Amicable. Your own medical adviser and the insurer’s adviser examine you together and try to reach joint conclusions. This is done on the basis of an agreement that you should have checked beforehand.
• Court-ordered. The judge appoints an independent expert. This is advisable for serious injuries or when the doctors cannot agree.

At every assessment, have your own medical adviser assist you, so that all your complaints are put on the table.

Proving your other losses

Keep all invoices, payslips, certificates from your employer and photos. A short diary of your complaints during the first months will later help you make your loss concrete.

Can you get an advance payment?

A medical assessment and the settlement of a personal injury claim often take months, sometimes years. In the meantime, you can ask for an advance (an interim payment, provision) on the loss that is already certain, such as temporary incapacity or medical costs already paid.

Where liability is clear, many insurers pay this voluntarily. Otherwise, the judge can award an interim payment, even while the assessment is still ongoing.

How long do you have to claim your compensation?

Claim	Time limit
Against the person liable (non-contractual)	5 years from the day after you became aware of the loss and of the person liable, maximum 20 years after the accident
Directly against that person’s insurer	5 years from the accident, extended to a maximum of 10 years if you only became aware of your right later

The first time limit is in Article 2262bis of the Civil Code, the second in Article 88 of the Insurance Act. In addition, a claim for compensation that arises from an offence, such as an offence against physical integrity under Article 218 of the Criminal Code, does not become time-barred before the public prosecution.

Lengthy negotiations with an insurer do not always stop the clock, and certainly not with regard to all parties. If in doubt, have it checked in good time whether a summons is needed.

Civil party in the criminal proceedings

If the driver is prosecuted, for example for an offence against physical integrity under Article 218 of the Criminal Code or for driving under the influence, you can join the proceedings as a civil party (se constituer partie civile). You then attach your compensation claim to the criminal case. The police court judge rules on both the penalty and your compensation in the same judgment.

This has advantages. You benefit from the criminal file, with the police report, the interviews and possibly a road accident expert. The judge can appoint a medical expert, award an interim payment and assess the rest of the loss later.

You can also bring separate civil proceedings later, but that court will then wait for the criminal judgment.

Frequently asked questions

Have your case reviewed

A compensation claim seems simple, until the insurer offers a lower amount or overlooks a head of loss. We check which losses you can claim, assist you during the medical assessment and negotiate with the insurer. Contact us.

Law as at 30 September 2026. We update this article when the rules change.