What to Do After a Car Accident

1. The first few minutes at the scene of the accident

First, make sure everyone is safe: stop, turn on your hazard lights, put on a reflective vest, and set out a warning triangle. If needed, give first aid. Only then deal with the paperwork.

The key question is: do you have to call the police? Under Section 47 of Act No. 361/2000 Coll., on Road Traffic, you only have this duty in specific cases. As of 1 July 2025, the financial threshold was also raised from CZK 100,000 to CZK 200,000, so if you were previously going by the older figure, it is time to update it.

You must call the police if at least one of the following situations occurs:

• ✓someone was injured or killed in the accident
• ✓the damage to any of the vehicles or the property being transported clearly exceeds CZK 200,000
• ✓someone else’s property outside the vehicles involved was damaged, for example a fence, a parked car, or a building
• ✓a road or a piece of public infrastructure was damaged, for example a guardrail, a sign, or public lighting
• ✓the environment was damaged, typically by a leak of operating fluids
• ✓you and the other party disagree about who caused the accident

If none of these situations occurred, you do not need to call the police. The duty does not disappear entirely, though: you must fill in a joint accident report and report the accident to your insurer without undue delay.

If the accident is not obstructing traffic and no one is at risk, you can move the vehicles out of the lane once you have documented everything, to avoid causing a further accident. Avoid moving the vehicles, though, before the police arrive or before you complete the report, without first noting or photographing their original position. The position of the vehicles right after the collision is often the key piece of evidence for who caused the accident.

2. The accident report form, photo documentation, and witnesses

If you do not call the police, the law requires you and the other driver to fill in a joint accident report, the so-called European accident statement. You can get it for free from your insurer or in your insurer’s mobile app, but your own written record with the same information is also sufficient.

What must be in the report, and what else you should document:

• ✓identification details of both drivers, their vehicles, and their insurers
• ✓a description of how the accident happened and a sketch or photos of the vehicles’ positions
• ✓the signatures of both drivers, without which the form is not valid
• ✓photographs of the damage to both vehicles from every angle, including the license plates
• ✓photographs of skid marks on the road, traffic signs, and the overall situation at the scene
• ✓contact details of any witnesses, name and phone number, if anyone was present

Signing the accident report only confirms that the information given is correct, not an admission of fault, unless you expressly state so in the form. Send the completed form to your insurer without delay, whether you are sending it as the party at fault or as the injured party.

3. Medical examination even for an apparently minor injury

Even if you feel fine, I recommend getting examined the same day, ideally at an emergency room or by your own doctor. Concussion, whiplash, or internal injuries often only appear hours or days later, once the adrenaline has worn off.

This examination is not just about your health. It is also the first piece of evidence that later proves the causal link between the accident and your health problems. If you only see a doctor a week later, the insurer will argue that the problems could have arisen at another time and for another reason, and will dispute or reject your claim for pain and suffering.

4. Reporting to the insurer and deadlines

Report the damage without undue delay, ideally within a few days of the accident. If you are the injured party, you report the claim to the insurer with which the party at fault has their mandatory liability insurance, or to your own comprehensive insurer.

Under Section 2798 of the Civil Code, the insurer is required to conclude its investigation of a claim within 3 months of it being reported; if it cannot, it must inform you in writing of the reasons. The insurance payout is then due within 15 days after the investigation concludes. Mandatory liability insurance itself is now governed by Act No. 30/2024 Coll. Note this deadline, since its expiry without action is a good sign that it is time to involve a lawyer.

If you are the injured party and the party at fault has no mandatory liability insurance at all, or it cannot be identified, you turn instead to the Czech Insurers’ Bureau, which pays out of the guarantee fund in such cases. The same deadlines and the same principles for calculating compensation apply here too.

5. What compensation you are entitled to

The scope of compensation for damage and non-material harm is set out in Section 2894 et seq. of the Civil Code. Depending on the nature of the accident, you may claim several types of compensation at once:

• ✓damage to the vehicle (Section 2952 of the Civil Code): repair costs, or, in the case of a total loss, the difference between the vehicle’s value before and after the accident
• ✓the cost of a replacement vehicle and other actual damage as well as lost profit (Section 2952 of the Civil Code), lost profit typically for entrepreneurs and self-employed persons who were without their car for business
• ✓pain and suffering (Section 2958 of the Civil Code): compensation for the pain and hardship associated with the injury and treatment, assessed under the Supreme Court’s 2014 Methodology
• ✓compensation for permanently reduced quality of life (Section 2958 of the Civil Code): compensation for lasting consequences that limit you in everyday, working, or family life
• ✓costs connected with treatment (Section 2960 of the Civil Code): co-payments for medication, rehabilitation, aids, and provable costs of people who cared for you
• ✓loss of earnings (Sections 2962 and 2963 of the Civil Code) during incapacity for work and after it ends, if the consequences of your injuries permanently reduce your earnings
• ✓in the event of the death of a close person, funeral costs (Section 2961 of the Civil Code) and compensation for the survivors’ mental suffering (Section 2959 of the Civil Code)

Not every case includes all of these items. For a minor accident without injury, you usually only deal with damage to the vehicle. The more serious the consequences, the more worthwhile it becomes to have your claim calculated by someone who knows the calculation methodology.

Who will handle your case

Ing. Mgr. Tomáš Beneš

Attorney registered with the Czech Bar Association, based in Prague.

Law degree from Charles University. I focus on business law, real estate and employment disputes. I handle every case personally, no assistants.

More about me →

6. Why insurers cut payouts, and how to fight back

Insurers have an economic incentive to pay out as little as possible. In practice this shows up in several recurring ways: a lower point score for pain and suffering than the Supreme Court’s Methodology would suggest, disputing the causal link between later health problems and the accident, claiming contributory fault by the injured party, or undervaluing the vehicle’s market price in a total-loss case.

A typical example is when an injured party has their pain and suffering assessed by their own general practitioner without knowledge of the Supreme Court’s Methodology. The insurer then has no trouble accepting the figure, because it is lower than what the injured party would actually be entitled to. The injured party themselves often has no idea they could have claimed more, because they have nothing to compare it to.

How to fight back:

• ✓have an independent expert opinion prepared on the amount of damage or pain and suffering
• ✓file a written objection to the amount paid out, with reasoning and supporting documents
• ✓if the insurer does not respond or does not increase the offer, consider a lawsuit

Insurers often reconsider their offer and pay out more once faced with the threat of a lawsuit backed by a lawyer, because they genuinely risk losing in court and having to cover the litigation costs as well.

7. Limitation period: how long you have to make a claim

Under Section 629(1) of the Civil Code, the right to compensation for damage becomes time-barred 3 years from the day you learned of the damage and of the person liable to compensate for it. For non-material harm to health, i.e. pain and suffering and compensation for permanently reduced quality of life, only this 3-year subjective period applies, because under Section 636(3) of the Civil Code the longer 10- or 15-year objective periods that otherwise apply to compensation for damage do not apply to it.

For damage to property, typically to a vehicle, an objective period of 10 years from when the damage occurred also applies, regardless of when you learned of it. Whether you are dealing with damage to your car or with health consequences, I do not recommend waiting to make your claim: the sooner you file it, the fresher the evidence, and the less room it leaves for the insurer to argue that the claim is time-barred.

Frequently asked questions: What to do after a car accident

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