Can you claim compensation if you were injured in a road accident?

Yes. The insurer of the vehicle that caused the accident pays for your treatment and for the compensation a court awards you.

Who pays for your injury?

The third party insurer of the vehicle that caused the accident. Every UAE motor policy carries the unified third party wording, which covers death or bodily injury to any person, inside or outside the vehicle.¹

Its limit is “the value judicially awarded without any limit whatsoever”, including your court costs but not fines. The insurer may not take any deductible from your compensation.¹

The policy excludes some people from this cover: the insured, the driver who caused the accident, and the insured’s employees injured at work. The driver’s or insured’s own spouse, parents and children are covered up to AED 200,000 each.¹ If you were the driver, see personal accident insurance.

Who pays your hospital bills?

The at-fault insurer pays treatment costs directly to the hospital, clinic or pharmacy, government or private. If treatment is not finished, it issues a letter of commitment to the provider who will continue it.¹ It also pays AED 6,770 to the ambulance service for each injured person taken to hospital.¹

Give the hospital the police report number and the other vehicle’s insurer, and ask it to bill that insurer.

What can you claim compensation for?

The Civil Transactions Law says every act that causes harm to another obliges the person who did it to pay compensation.² For an injury, compensation covers:

• the loss you suffered and the earnings you lost, where they follow naturally from the accident
• moral harm, such as pain and the effect on your life
• moral harm to your spouse and relatives up to the second degree, if you are disabled or killed.²

Where blood money (diya) or arsh is due, a court can award more on top if the death or injury caused material and moral harm that the diya or arsh does not cover.² See blood money.

The court can award the money as a lump sum, in instalments or as a regular income. If your injury gets worse, you can ask for the amount to be reassessed.²

What if you were partly to blame?

The court can reduce your compensation, or refuse it, if your own act helped cause the harm or made it worse.² Where more than one insurer is involved, the policy splits death and injury compensation equally between them, taking each side’s share of the negligence into account.¹

When is the compensation paid?

Once a court judgment is enforceable. Treatment costs are paid as they arise.¹

An accident with injuries is a police case. The Ministry of Interior opens traffic reports for accidents in its criminal systems and refers them to the public prosecution.³ The criminal case does not set your compensation: the civil claim is separate, and the penalty has no effect on the amount.²

Ask the police or prosecution for the case number and keep every medical report and receipt.

Do you have to go to Sanadak first?

Sanadak, the Central Bank’s insurance complaints unit, says complaints against insurers must come to it before the courts.⁴ Federal Decree-Law 6 of 2025 says claims arising from insurance contracts are not heard in court unless first put to the complaint committees.⁵ Ask Sanadak whether your claim against the other driver’s insurer must go through it. See where to complain.

How long do you have to claim?

Three years from the day you learned of the harm and who was responsible, and never more than 15 years after the accident. If the accident is also a crime and the criminal case can still be brought after the three years, the three years start when the criminal case ends.² The motor policy itself bars lawsuits after three years.¹ All the deadlines are on the time limits page.