Fatal road accident in Poland. Compensation for the family

Who can claim

The court may also award the closest members of the family of the deceased an appropriate sum as pecuniary compensation for the harm suffered.

Article 446 § 4 of the Polish Civil Code (unofficial translation)

The law speaks of the closest family members but does not list them. Most often the spouse, children and parents receive compensation. Siblings, grandparents and grandchildren can also claim if they had a close, real bond with the person who died.

What counts is the bond, not kinship or a marriage certificate as such. A partner from a long-term informal relationship can be treated as one of the closest family members if the relationship was particularly close^{1Court of Appeal in Poznań (Sąd Apelacyjny w Poznaniu), judgment of 2 June 2021, I ACa 377/20}. On the other hand, kinship alone is not enough where contact with the deceased was loose.

What the family can claim

• Medical and funeral costs, for whoever paid them (Article 446 § 1). It is worth keeping all invoices and receipts.
• A maintenance annuity (renta) for persons the deceased was legally obliged to maintain, for example children, and for close persons the deceased supported voluntarily and permanently (Article 446 § 2).
• Compensation for a significant deterioration of the family’s living situation (Article 446 § 3).
• Compensation for the harm suffered (zadośćuczynienie), that is for grief, loneliness and the sense of loss (Article 446 § 4).

These are separate claims. An insurer that has paid one of them has not settled the others.

How Polish courts set the amount

Compensation for harm is meant to make up for pain, loneliness and loss. The court looks above all at the type and intensity of the bond, the role the deceased played in the family, the age of the deceased and of the relatives, and how the family copes after the death^{2Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy), judgment of 11 December 2024, II CSKP 2332/22}.

• The intensity of suffering. Shock, emptiness, mental suffering, and whether the relatives needed a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Treatment may support a higher amount, but the absence of treatment is not a reason to reduce compensation^{3Court of Appeal in Kraków (Sąd Apelacyjny w Krakowie), judgment of 24 June 2020, I ACa 219/19}.
• The suddenness of the death. A death in a road accident comes without warning. The family has no chance to say goodbye or to prepare for the loss.
• Age and plans for the future. A young child who loses a parent deserves high compensation, because the child has lost that parent’s presence throughout growing up^{4Court of Appeal in Szczecin (Sąd Apelacyjny w Szczecinie), judgment of 17 June 2021, III APa 9/20}.
• Life together. Whether the deceased lived with the family, how often they saw each other and whether they helped each other every day.

The amount does not depend on how wealthy the family is. It has to be economically noticeable, but kept within reasonable limits. Amounts awarded in similar cases can guide the court, but only as a secondary point of reference.

According to media reports, in two widely reported criminal cases in 2026 Polish courts awarded PLN 500,000 to each parent of the victims of a crash on the A1 motorway and PLN 300,000 to each of the closest relatives of a man killed in Warsaw. Neither judgment was final when it was reported. These figures are not a price list. The same loss can be valued differently, because the court assesses a particular family and a particular bond. That is why the evidence decides the outcome. Witness statements, a psychologist’s opinion, medical records, photographs and the history of the family’s life together all matter.

Who pays and when

Compensation is paid by the insurer with which the driver at fault had compulsory motor third party liability insurance (OC). This insurance covers damage resulting from a death caused by the movement of a vehicle (Article 34 paragraph 1 of the Compulsory Insurance Act). The family can claim directly from the insurer (Article 19 paragraph 1).

As a rule, the insurer has 30 days from the notification of the claim to pay (Article 14 paragraph 1). If it pays too little and a court later awards more, interest may run from the end of that period rather than from the judgment^{5Court of Appeal in Kraków (Sąd Apelacyjny w Krakowie), judgment of 9 December 2021, I ACa 916/20}. The risk of a low valuation is therefore on the insurer.

If the driver had no insurance or was never identified, the claim goes to the Insurance Guarantee Fund (Ubezpieczeniowy Fundusz Gwarancyjny). I explain this in the guide uninsured or hit-and-run driver in Poland.

The criminal case and the civil claim

A road accident in which someone died is a criminal offence under Article 177 § 2 of the Criminal Code. If the victim has died, the rights the victim would have had in the criminal proceedings may be exercised by the closest persons or by persons the deceased maintained (Article 52 § 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). They can act as auxiliary prosecutor (Article 53) and ask the court to order the offender to pay compensation in the judgment (Article 46 § 1 of the Criminal Code). An amount awarded in the criminal judgment does not prevent the family from claiming the rest in civil proceedings (Article 46 § 3).

A relative who does not speak Polish is questioned with an interpreter (Article 204 § 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). More on this in the guide your rights as a victim in the criminal case.

Contributory fault of the deceased

If the person who died contributed to the accident, compensation is reduced (Article 362 of the Civil Code). This also applies to the family’s claims, because the court must take into account the conduct of the deceased^{6Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy), decision of 29 January 2024, I CSK 1196/23}. A typical example is a pedestrian who stepped onto the road directly in front of an approaching car. Contributory fault has to be proven. A breach of a rule by the deceased is not enough if it had no effect on the course of the accident.

Insurers often raise contributory fault to reduce the payment. Whether the argument holds usually depends on the opinion of the accident reconstruction expert.

Settlement offers from the insurer

Insurers sometimes offer a settlement soon after the accident. A grieving family, often in a difficult financial situation, accepts the first figure. A settlement covers only the claims the parties knew of or could foresee^{7Court of Appeal in Lublin (Sąd Apelacyjny w Lublinie), judgment of 27 March 2023, I ACa 482/22}. Even so, once it is signed, claiming more becomes much harder. Before signing, it is worth checking whether the amount matches what Polish courts award.

Time limits

Where the accident was a criminal offence, and a fatal accident is one, the claim becomes time-barred 20 years after the offence was committed (Article 442¹ § 2 of the Civil Code). The passage of time since the death is not in itself a reason to reduce compensation^{8Court of Appeal in Szczecin (Sąd Apelacyjny w Szczecinie), judgment of 28 September 2021, I ACa 527/21}. It is still not worth waiting. Witnesses and documents become harder to find.

Running the case from abroad

Many families of foreign victims live outside Poland. The claim against a Polish insurer and the court proceedings can be handled by a Polish attorney acting under a power of attorney. How this works in practice is described in the guide injured in a road accident in Poland.

Questions families ask most often