Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — The traffic circuits in general courts and the Traffic Court in Riyadh have received a total of 9,702 cases demanding compensation for traffic accidents during the last six months, Arabic daily Al-Watan reported quoting a judicial source.

The source said the complaints were raised as the violators refused to pay compensation to the victims.

He said Makkah topped the list of cities and towns in the number of the compensation claims.

Nawwaf Al-Nabati, lawyer and legal consultant, said in the past the traffic lawsuits were considered by the general courts like other cases as there were no special judges to look into them.

"Within its drive to upgrade the judiciary, the Justice Ministry has established a traffic court in Riyadh and set up traffic circuits in general courts all over the Kingdom after appointing special judges to look into cases involving road accidents," he said.

Nabati said the traffic courts would look into cases forwarded to them by the traffic department for settlement.

He said most of the conflicts between the litigants stem from their differences over the value of the compensation and the ratio of error apportioned to each one of them.

He said the cases were also raised to fix the diyyah (blood money) for the heirs of the victim in case of deaths.

Nabati said some of the drivers would ask for a field inspector from Najm Company for Insurance Services to assess the damage and decide the ratio of error on the part of each party involved in a traffic accident.

He said many of the drivers responsible for the accidents would usually reject Najm's report and then those cases would be sent to the traffic courts.

Nabati praised the establishment of traffic courts saying they were able to do justice to the victims of traffic accidents.