Nobody sets out to have a road traffic accident. And yet, in 2025, the police in Germany recorded around 2.52 million road traffic accidents, of which 2.22 million resulted in property damage only (Federal Statistical Office). For most of those affected, this is when the frantic search for information on how to deal with the accident begins:
- Who do I have to inform and in what order?
- Who has to pay what and when?
- Which documents do I get where?
- How can I get mobile again quickly?
- How do I minimise my cost risk?
fairforce.one helps you navigate the maze and outlines the process for customer-focused claims settlement here.
Accident victims like you get the best support from fairforce.one.
Have your accident reported now free of charge and without obligation by our regulation specialists.
Short & sweet: Claims settlement after an accident
The concept of Claims settlement is the general term for the entire claims handling and settlement process. This usually refers to the settlement of claims with the insurance company and the other party involved in the accident. Firstly, compensation is claimed from the liable party - in this case the party responsible for the accident - or their liability insurance. This is followed by the payment of compensation to the injured party.
Disputes often arise over how the accident actually occurred – in other words, who is the party at fault – in this case, the person who caused the accident – and who is the injured party. This is because it plays a key role in determining who is liable to pay compensation to whom, and in what amount, and it influences how the accident is settled.
Documentation at the scene of the accident is the prerequisite for correct claims settlement
Keep calm immediately after the accident. Exchange this information with the other party involved in the accident:
- Full name
- address
- Licence plate
- Insurance of the other party involved in the accident
Take photos that clearly show the final position of the vehicles. The damage to your vehicle and the other party's vehicle should be clearly visible. Also make sure that the other party's licence plate number is fully visible.
You should also make a brief note of how the accident happened. This should be done immediately after the accident, because in this stressful situation it is often easy to forget how the accident actually happened. If the other party in the accident already admits their fault, have them confirm this informally in writing on a simple sheet of paper.
When taking photos, pay particular attention to brake marks and splinter marks. Both the rubber and the glass marks provide valuable information later if there is a dispute about the course of the accident and the apportionment of blame. If passers-by or other road users are at the scene of the accident, exchange contact details with them too. If the other party later denies fault, witnesses are a very valuable remedy.
It also makes sense for the other party to have your details available so that they can contact you with further questions and pass on information - such as the claim number - to their insurance company.
Claims settlement procedure - this is how it works
Settling claims following an accident is extremely important and not at all difficult to do. To help you understand how claims are settled for motor vehicles and other items, fairforce.one has summarised the key steps here:
1) Contact insurance company
Once you are back home, you should contact the other party’s insurance company and report the damage. The insurance company will take down all your details, ask you about the circumstances of the accident and also about all the details of your vehicle. You will then receive specific contact details from the insurance company (in particular a telephone number and email address) and at least a provisional claim number. For claims above the de minimis threshold, it is you, as the injured party, who decides whether to appoint an independent loss assessor – not the other party’s insurer. As you now have the insurer’s contact details and the claim reference number, you can also send the photos of the accident scene to the insurer, quoting the claim reference number.
You must state the claim number for everything you report to the insurance company. Otherwise, there is a risk that your information will end up in nirvana because it cannot be assigned. The insurer of the other party involved in the accident will regularly try to minimise the share of fault of its own policyholder and/or direct you to its own workshops for repairs. If you agree to this, it will regularly be at the expense of your compensation payment and you will lose money and value.
The insurance company may send you a questionnaire for claimants. The information you provide must be truthful. However, do have the questionnaire checked before you send it off – the wording regarding the circumstances of the accident will later determine the apportionment of liability. fairforce.one can take care of this on request; you can find out what is important here in the Guide to the questionnaire from the other party’s insurance company. You should then return the completed questionnaire to the insurance company. Make a copy of the completed questionnaire for your own records, so that you can refer back to it later to see what information you provided to the insurance company.
Don't risk any reductions from the other party's insurance company - have your accident free of charge and without obligation by our regulation specialists.
2) Insurance company contacts the other party involved in the accident
The insurance company will now contact its policyholder – that is, the other party involved in the accident – and ask them about the accident. Once it has received accounts of the accident from both you and the other party, the insurance company can check whether the accounts match and whether the circumstances of the accident have thus been clarified. If this is the case, the insurance company can determine liability; in a clear-cut case, this would be 100 %. This means that you will be compensated for your loss at a rate of 100%. Typically, however, this is precisely where disputes arise, and the so-called ‘operational risk’ is regularly invoked. Operational risk is not a form of contributory negligence, but rather strict liability under Section 7 of the Road Traffic Act (StVG). It is often set at around 20 %, but is generally waived entirely in the event of an unavoidable incident on your part (Section 17(3) of the Road Traffic Act) or gross negligence on the part of the other party.
As you can see here, it is extremely important to establish who is the injured party and who is at fault for the road traffic accident in order to be able to claim compensation. The question of fault is determined on the basis of the circumstances of the accident. If you report your road traffic accident via fairforce.one, you will receive an initial assessment of liability within 24 hours from fairforce.one’s network of traffic law specialists. This protects you from unjustified accusations of liability. And best of all: fairforce.one provides this service free of charge.
3) Send expert opinion to insurance company
If you have now received the valuation report for your vehicle and, where applicable, a cost estimate accompanied by photographs of the damage, please send these documents to the other party’s insurance company, quoting the claim reference number. The valuation report or cost estimate will set out the damage to your vehicle that the insurance company is required to cover.
At this stage of claims processing, you can use so-called assignment declarations to specify to whom which funds are to be paid out.
Don’t have time to sort out the paperwork? Then fairforce.one will take care of it for you. When you report your accident via the fairforce.one portal, fairforce.one not only communicates on your behalf with all parties involved in settling the claim, but you can also make use of our document centre. All important documents, such as expert reports and the like, are stored securely here for you. This means you always have the very latest information to hand – without having to rummage through a huge pile of paper.
4) Assert further claims
In this context, you can now also assert your further claims.
These are e.g:
- Expert costs
- Flat-rate costs
- Rental car or Loss of use
- Impairment
- Registration and deregistration fees
- Loss of earnings
- Compensation for pain and suffering in the event of personal injury
- Legal fees in accordance with the RVG
Not sure what compensation you’re entitled to following an accident? No problem. fairforce.one is here to help. Report your accident to fairforce.one now and their road traffic law experts will assess your claims following a road traffic accident.
Accident victims in your situation simply get the best support from fairforce.one.
Depending on the cause of the accident, customers receive an average of €4802 Additional payment
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This is how fairforce.one handles claims settlement
You’ve seen that the claims settlement process can be a rather confusing minefield. To help you make sense of it all, the experts at fairforce.one are here to assist you and take care of the entire claims settlement process for you.
The sooner you contact us, the sooner we can help you. Our network of independent, certified traffic law specialists will take care of a professional and smooth claims settlement in your interests.
What do you need to do now? In just 2 minutes, you can report your accident to fairforce.one directly online or by phone on the freephone number 0800 – 30 111 60. A member of staff from the fairforce.one network will contact you by phone as soon as possible. The next steps will then be discussed with you.
Questions and answers on the accident claims settlement process
What is the claims settlement procedure after an accident?
In four steps: Firstly, document the accident – details of the other party involved, photos of the final position of the vehicles, and a brief note on what happened. Secondly, contact the at-fault party’s liability insurer and make a note of the claim reference number. Thirdly, submit an expert report or cost estimate. Fourthly, make further claims – flat-rate expenses, hire car or loss of use, depreciation, loss of earnings. fairforce.one will handle all these steps for you on request.
How long does it take to settle a claim after an accident?
There is no statutory time limit. Case law grants the liability insurer a period of four to six weeks in which to assess the claim once the full documentation has been submitted. After this period, the injured party may serve notice of default on the insurer. Where liability is clear and a full expert report is available, insurers often pay out more quickly; disputes over liability significantly prolong the process.
How long does it take to get money back from the insurance company?
Once the assessment has been completed, insurers usually pay out within a few working days. The key factor is when the documentation is complete: the assessment period does not begin until the expert report has been submitted or the question of liability has been resolved. In practice, advance payments are possible; the injured party does not have to pay for the repairs up front.
Do I also have to report the accident – which wasn’t my fault – to my own insurance company?
Yes. Motor insurance policies stipulate a duty to report, even if you were not at fault for the accident. Reporting the accident will not affect your no-claims bonus as long as the other party’s liability insurance settles the claim. It protects you in case it later transpires that you were partly to blame.
What can I do if the insurance company reduces the amount of my claim?
Reductions often relate to hourly rates, travel expenses or the duration of the hire car. A reduction is not a formal decision subject to a time limit – you can object and request that each item be justified individually. fairforce.one reviews the claim settlement and enforces the outstanding items with the insurer.
When do claims arising from a road traffic accident become time-barred?
The standard limitation period is three years. It begins at the end of the year in which the accident occurred and you became aware of the damage and the party responsible for it (Sections 195 and 199 of the German Civil Code (BGB)). Negotiations with the insurer suspend the limitation period for as long as they are ongoing (Section 203 of the German Civil Code (BGB)).
