After an accident the practical questions arrive before the legal ones: who pays for the treatment, what happens to your salary, and whether the offer that appeared within a fortnight is a fair one. The answers depend heavily on where it happened, because Germany routes workplace accidents down an entirely separate track.
1. Where it happened decides the route
- At work, or travelling to or from it — the statutory accident insurance (Berufsgenossenschaft) covers it. You do not claim against your employer, and there is normally no fault to prove.
- Everywhere else, caused by someone — a civil claim against the person responsible and, in practice, their liability insurer.
- During medical treatment — a separate route with its own evidential demands (see below).
Getting the route right at the start matters, because they involve different bodies, different evidence and different time limits.
2. Document it now
Compensation claims are decided on evidence gathered in the first days, long before anyone thinks about lawyers.
- See a doctor immediately, even if you feel able to walk away. Gaps between the accident and the first medical record are the most common reason injuries are later disputed. Say clearly how it happened.
- Photograph everything — the scene, positions, damage, road or floor conditions, and your injuries as they develop.
- Get witness details, not just names.
- Report it — to the police for a road accident, to your employer for a workplace one. An official record is worth a great deal later.
- Keep a simple diary of pain, treatment, days unable to work and things you could not do. Reconstructing this a year later is nearly impossible and it directly affects what a claim is worth.
- Keep every receipt — travel to appointments, prescriptions, help around the house.
3. What you can actually claim
Where someone else is liable, the heads of claim usually include:
- Treatment costs not covered by your insurance;
- Lost earnings, including future loss where you cannot return to the same work;
- Pain and suffering (Schmerzensgeld) — assessed by reference to comparable decided cases rather than a fixed tariff;
- Household help where you cannot run your home as before — often overlooked and frequently substantial;
- Care and assistance provided by family, which counts even though nobody invoiced for it;
- Damaged property, and travel and incidental costs.
Where lasting consequences are possible, how a settlement is framed matters as much as the figure — a settlement that closes off future claims is worth much less than the same sum that does not.
4. Dealing with the other side's insurer
The other party's insurer may be helpful, prompt and pleasant. They are also not acting for you, and an early offer arrives at the point when least is known about how you will recover.
Three things worth holding to:
- Do not sign a final settlement or waiver early. Injuries that seem minor in week two are the ones that turn out otherwise, and a waiver is generally binding even then.
- Be careful with recorded statements and broad medical authorisations. A blanket release of your entire medical history is not something you owe them.
- Where another party is liable, their insurer normally bears your reasonable legal costs too. Taking advice therefore often costs you nothing — which makes accepting a first offer unadvised a poor trade.
5. Accidents at work and on the commute
The statutory accident insurance covers treatment, rehabilitation, and wage replacement, and can pay a pension for lasting reduction in earning capacity. It applies to accidents at work and generally to the direct journey between home and work.
Report it to your employer, and make sure it is passed on. For anything beyond a minor injury you should be seen by a specially designated doctor (Durchgangsarzt) — that referral both secures proper treatment and creates the record the insurance works from.
Decisions here — whether an accident is recognised, and what degree of impairment is assessed — are administrative decisions with a one-month objection period, exactly like other social-law decisions. Our guide to challenging a benefits decision explains that procedure.
6. When treatment goes wrong
A poor outcome is not by itself an error — the question is whether the treatment fell below the proper standard and caused the harm.
Two routes are worth knowing before spending money: statutory health insurers will commonly obtain an expert assessment for their members free of charge, and the medical associations run expert arbitration boards that assess cases without court proceedings. You are also entitled to a copy of your complete medical records — request them early and in writing.
7. How long you have
The general limitation period for compensation claims is three years, running from the end of the year in which you learned of the damage and who caused it. A claim from March 2026 therefore typically runs to the end of 2029 — longer than people fear, but not a reason to wait.
Different rules apply to the social-law route, where objection periods are measured in weeks rather than years. And evidence decays long before any limitation period expires: witnesses move, footage is overwritten, and the medical record either exists or it does not. The practical deadline is always earlier than the legal one.