Who is at fault in a car accident?

Filling out a joint report and reporting the accident to your insurer

A Joint report is a document that collects the information required for insurance companies to receive and process your claim.

It includes the date, time and location of the accident, contact information of the drivers and witnesses, and a description of the circumstances and damage. It must be filled out immediately at the scene and signed by all involved parties.

Property damage: your insurer establishes your liability following an accident

Whether or not the police must be involved, your insurer will establish your liability following a collision. It uses the Direct Compensation Agreement and the information contained in the Joint Report.

This Agreement, used by every automobile insurer, lists the most frequent accident causes and includes the drivers’ fault charts for a collision between different drivers. This liability is established while taking the Highway Safety Code into account.

A quick and streamlined settlement

The purpose of the Agreement is to ensure that each policyholder whose vehicle has suffered property damage is compensated directly by their insurer. When they are not at fault for an accident, they are automatically compensated by their insurer. If they are at fault, they will only be compensated if they have the required coverage. Thus, a policyholder cannot sue the at-fault driver for damage to their vehicle.

Conditions for application

While the Agreement addresses and resolves most collisions, it applies to collisions occurring in Quebec only and involving two or more vehicles. Vehicle owners must also be identified, and the vehicles cannot be owned by the same person.

The Agreement doesn’t apply to hit-and-run accidents as the driver who caused the damage cannot be identified. It also doesn’t apply to cases in which a vehicle owner collides with another vehicle they own.