Allow Hong Kong courts to order periodic payments instead of lump sums to compensate accident victims, Law Reform Commission says
- Advisory body says money disbursed in intervals protect accident victims from being exploited by family members
- Proposal applies to those who have been ‘catastrophically injured’ and suffer permanent disabilities
Hong Kong courts should be allowed to order periodic payments instead of lump sums to compensate the future losses of accident victims with serious injuries to protect them throughout their lives and prevent them from being exploited, the Law Reform Commission has said.
The advisory body’s suggestion on Thursday would only apply to those who were “catastrophically injured” in accidents and suffered permanent disabilities, requiring long-term care and assistance in daily activities.
“The problem with a lump sum award is that there’s only one certainty: it’s either too high or too low. One can never be precise,” senior counsel Raymond Leung Wai-man, chairman of the Law Reform Commission’s subcommittee on the matter said.
Currently, accident victims can lodge a personal injury claim to receive compensation covering lost income and medical expenses in a single payment.
Divided into losses before the trial ended and future ones, the latter is determined by multiplying the person’s salary, the number of years left before retirement and a discount rate reflecting potential investment returns, as victims are expected to invest the money to sustain themselves, while future medical fees are multiplied with their life expectancy.
The commission said the calculation was considered by some as neither accurate nor scientific.
Leung said amounts paid at regular intervals would prevent misuse by the victim’s family members, who sometimes may ask to borrow money for personal investments. He added that lawyers who handled personal injury claims had often encountered such cases.
“If we use periodical payment orders, then [the injured] can put their lives in order, and there wouldn’t be a large sum bestowed without a cause to their families,” he explained.