Help after an accident

Personal injury lawyer in Germany — in English.

Tell us about your accident in English. We'll look for a lawyer who handles your type of injury claim. The first consultation is free; matching depends on availability.

  • Personal injury claims — medical costs, lost income, and Schmerzensgeld for pain and suffering
  • Deal with insurers from a position of knowledge, not hope — first offers are negotiable
  • Document everything early: photos, witnesses, medical records — it decides cases later
Get help now → Check my deadline

Confidential · Reply within 24h — usually sooner · First consultation free

Get matched with a lawyer

Free & confidential · Reply within 24h — usually sooner · First consultation free

How urgent is it?
The date the letter reached you — that is what the deadline runs from.
Often covers the lawyer's fees in full — worth checking your policy, or a partner's.
Natürlich können Sie uns auch auf Deutsch schreiben.
PDF, photo, or Word — max 10 MB. A photo of the letter is perfect.

By submitting you agree to be contacted about your request as described in our Privacy Policy.

What we help with

Some of the situations people come to us with. Yours doesn't have to be on the list.

• Personal injury and pain compensation (Schmerzensgeld)

• Medical costs, rehabilitation and lost income

• Injuries caused by another person's negligence

• Road and car accidents — injury, vehicle damage, disputed fault

• Dog bites and injuries on someone else's property

• Damaged or destroyed personal property

• Defective products that caused harm

• Insurers offering less than a claim is worth

• Final settlement offers (Abfindungserklärung) before you sign

Read this first

Car Accident in Germany? What to Do and What You Can Claim

At the scene, the mistake that turns this criminal, why fault is usually shared, diminished value, and claims involving foreign plates or licences.

8 min read

Hit by a Car in Germany as a Cyclist or Pedestrian

Strict liability under § 7 StVG, why riding without a helmet does not cut your claim, the age rules that protect children, dooring, and what an early settlement closes off.

9 min read

How Much Compensation Can You Claim in Germany?

The two separate pots, how pain-and-suffering awards are actually arrived at, the household and care items nobody claims, and why “final settlement” is the dangerous phrase.

8 min read

Injured in Germany? What You Can Claim

Which route applies, the evidence that decides claims, what Schmerzensgeld covers, and why not to sign an insurer's early offer.

8 min read

Common questions

German courts use case tables (Schmerzensgeldtabellen) for comparable injuries, plus your concrete losses. A lawyer can give you a realistic range in the first consultation.

Don't accept quickly. Early offers often exclude future damages and undervalue pain compensation. Signing a final settlement (Abfindungserklärung) usually closes the door permanently.

The standard limitation period is three years from year-end of when you learned of damage and the responsible party — but evidence gets weaker every month, so act early.

Where another party is liable, their insurer generally has to reimburse the reasonable legal costs of a successful claim, which is why injury work is often not paid out of your own pocket. Legal expenses insurance (Rechtsschutzversicherung) covers many cases outright, and the first consultation through Klarlaw is free either way.

Shared fault (Mitverschulden, § 254 BGB) usually reduces a claim rather than ending it, and it is expressed as a percentage — 25% at fault means 75% of the loss. Insurers routinely propose a split that is more favourable to them than the facts support.

Yes, and usually in your favour. Under § 7 StVG the keeper of a motor vehicle is liable for injuries caused by its operation even without proven fault, apart from narrow exceptions such as an unavoidable event. Fault still matters for the size of the claim, but you do not start from zero.

Weeks, where liability is admitted and treatment has finished. Longer where injuries are still being treated — a final settlement signed before the outcome is known normally cannot be reopened, so the timing of the settlement is itself part of the case.

It helps, but a civil compensation claim does not depend on one. What decides these cases is evidence gathered early: photographs, names of witnesses, and medical documentation that records the injury close to the date it happened.

General information, not legal advice — your lawyer assesses your specific case in the free first consultation.

Related areas

Legal problems rarely arrive alone — a job loss can put a residence permit at risk, a divorce can raise housing questions.

Victim of a crime →
Contracts & consumer →
Social security →

Something else entirely? See everything we help with — whatever it is, you get an English-speaking German lawyer.