Foreign practices of representing a victim of a traffic accident in criminal proceedings

Abstract

A substantial increase in the quantitative indicators of traffic accident statistics in Ukraine in recent years, as well as a tendency to decrease the effectiveness of solving this type of crime due to a decrease in attention to the problem, leads to impunity for the guilty, as well as the inability of victims to protect their rights and interests. Despite the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, such basic institutions as the representation of the interests of the victims, especially in the field of crimes against traffic safety and operation of transport, must have clear legal regulation at the state level, which is precisely what determines the relevance of this study. The purpose of this study was to analyse the foreign practices of the victim representation institution both in the general context and in terms of crimes against traffic safety and transport operation, as well as standardization and improvement of the current legislation by borrowing foreign legal ideas. The basis of the methodological approach is dialectical and comparativist methods, which helped analyse the legislation of several European countries. The study analysed the legislation of the Netherlands, Germany, the USA, and Great Britain for comparative analysis and to find gaps in national legislation. The need to distinguish between the terms “representative of the victim” and “legal representative”, as well as to separate the category “advocate-representative of the victim” from the general concept of “defender in criminal proceedings” was proved. Some provisions were also presented, according to which the legally mandatory participation of a lawyer representing the victim in road traffic accident cases and the presence of certain conditions should be established. The study focuses on the issue of compensation for damage caused to the victim as a result of the accident and possible aspects of its settlement at the state level, considering the practices of the Netherlands. The results obtained during this study are an important theoretical basis for improving the legal regulation of the activity of a lawyer representing a victim of a traffic accident