Two questions come first: which country's courts may hear the claim, and which country's law decides it. They do not always have the same answer, and neither should be assumed from where you live. A claim brought in Cyprus is subject to a three-year period, but where the claim belongs elsewhere a different and shorter period may apply. The evidence is obtainable in the country where it happened and very difficult to obtain from another.
Where it happened decides more than where you live
This page is for two people. The first was on holiday or working in Cyprus and was injured here: at a hotel or resort, in a hire car, on an excursion, in the water, or on a building site while posted here. The second lives in Cyprus and was injured somewhere else.
Both start with the same three questions as any other claim, about duty, breach and cause. But two further questions arrive before them and have to be answered first, because everything else follows from the answers.
How to start a first enquiry
Where the accident happened, the date, and where you normally live. The name of the hotel, tour operator, hire company, excursion provider or employer, so we can run a conflict check, and any deadline you are aware of. Please do not send the incident or police report, the hire or booking documents, your travel insurance policy or the medical records until we confirm we can act, then they can come through the right channel.
The two preliminary questions
Which court, and which law
The first is which country's courts may hear the claim. The second is which country's law decides it. They do not always have the same answer, and it is entirely possible for a court in one country to apply the law of another.
Both depend on where the accident happened, where the person you are claiming against is established, and on the arrangement under which you travelled or worked. Neither can be settled from a description of the accident alone, and neither should be assumed from where you happen to live.
Where the accident happened in Cyprus and the claim is brought here, the basis is negligence, a civil wrong under section 51 of the Civil Wrongs Law, Cap. 148, and section 57 of the same Law reduces damages by the injured person's own share of responsibility rather than defeating the claim.
They are not academic questions. They determine which time limit you are actually working to, what evidence will be needed and in what form, and whether the claim is one this firm can bring in Cyprus or one that belongs before a court elsewhere.
Why the time limit is the urgent part
A claim brought in Cyprus for damages for personal injury must generally be brought within three years under the Limitation of Actions Law 66(I)/2012. If the claim belongs elsewhere, or is decided by another country's law, a different period may apply, and it may be shorter than three years. Assuming three years because the accident happened in Cyprus, or because you live here, is the mistake that ends these claims. Section 27Α of the same Law suspends the limitation period for negligence and breach of statutory duty for thirty nine months from the day the 2021 amending law came into force, so the three years is not by itself the answer to whether a claim is in time.
Where the claim is one governed by Cyprus law, two provisions are worth knowing. Under section 6(2) the three years run from the day the cause of action was complete, or from the day the injured person came to know of the injury where that was later. Under section 6(3) the court has a discretion, in a claim for bodily injury or death, to decide that the limitation provisions do not apply, and that discretion cannot be exercised more than two years after the period expired. Neither provision helps with a claim decided by another country's law, which is the reason the applicable law has to be settled first rather than last.
If you were injured abroad, or while visiting Cyprus, tell us which country it happened in and the date, at office@kleanthousplatis.com, or the enquiry form. We reply within one business day.
Who is answerable
Frequently a company you never dealt with directly
The party responsible for the thing that injured you is often not the party you booked with, and occasionally not a party in the same country.
- The hotel, resort or apartment operator, as the business in control of the premises. This is the same question dealt with under accidents in public and private places
- An excursion, activity or water sports operator, which is frequently a separate business from the hotel that sold you the ticket
- A tour operator or travel organiser, where the arrangement was a package rather than separate bookings
- A vehicle hire company, and separately the driver of any other vehicle involved, which is dealt with under road traffic accidents
- An employer, where you were posted or working away from home, dealt with under construction and workplace accidents
Whether you booked a package or made separate arrangements is one of the first things to establish, because it can change who is answerable to you and where. Send the booking confirmation as it was issued, not a description of it.
Evidence
Collect it before you fly home
Everything on this list is obtainable in the country where it happened and very difficult to obtain from another one.
- The incident report made by the hotel, operator or employer, and a copy of it in your hand before you leave
- Photographs of the place and of whatever caused the injury, before it is repaired or cleared
- The police report or reference, where the police attended
- Names and contact details of witnesses, including their home country, since they are likely to disperse to several
- The medical records and receipts from the treatment you received there, in the language they were issued in
- The booking confirmation, the hire agreement, the excursion ticket and the terms attached to any of them
- Your travel insurance policy, and the record of anything you reported to the insurer or to a representative on the ground
- Recorded footage, requested in writing before you leave, because a request made from another country weeks later usually arrives after the system has recorded over it
Report the accident to the hotel, operator or employer while you are still there, and ask for the report in writing. A report made in person and never written down is the most common gap in this category of claim.
Continue treatment when you get home, and keep those records too. The connection between the accident abroad and the treatment afterwards is proved by the two sets of records read together.
Questions we are asked
I was injured in Cyprus but I have gone home. Do I need to come back?
Much of this work is conducted by email and without the client returning to Cyprus. Some steps require a personal attendance and some do not, and a power of attorney drafted here and signed where you live covers a good deal of it. We would tell you at the outset which steps in your matter need you in person. The general position on acting for people who are not in Cyprus is set out under clients abroad.
My travel insurer says it will deal with everything.
An insurer's obligations to you come from the policy, and what the policy covers is not necessarily the same as what a claim against the party responsible would cover. The two can run alongside each other. Send us the policy and whatever the insurer has written to you, and do not sign anything closing a claim until somebody has read it. Where the accident happened at a hotel, the position of the operator and of the tour organiser is dealt with separately in our guide to a hotel accident claim in Cyprus. Where the claim is governed by Cyprus law, a receipt, a discharge and a settlement agreement are contracts that bind you once they satisfy section 10 of the Contract Law, Cap. 149, and they are set aside only for coercion under section 15, undue influence under section 16, fraud under section 17, misrepresentation under section 18, or common mistake as to a material fact under section 21.
I live in Cyprus and was hurt abroad.
Send us the details early, and in particular the date, because the period within which the claim must be brought may be governed by the law of the country where it happened rather than by the three-year period under the Limitation of Actions Law 66(I)/2012. That question is the first one to answer, and it is answered on the facts of your matter.
Everything I have is in Greek, or in a language I cannot read.
Send it anyway. We will tell you what each document says. Documents issued in one country and produced in another commonly need to be legalised and translated, and the order in which that is done matters, so do not arrange translations before asking.
Which country will decide my case?
Two separate questions: which country's courts may hear it, and which country's law decides the substance. They do not always have the same answer, and it is entirely possible for a court in one country to apply the law of another. This page asserts no rule, because the answer comes from your facts and your documents rather than from a general statement.
I signed a disclaimer before the activity.
Send it to us as you signed it, with the ticket and the terms of the activity. What a disclaimer achieves depends on the applicable law and on its own wording, and this page does not prejudge it. Do not assume either that it binds you or that it does not. Where Cyprus law applies, the document is a contract and it is set aside only on the grounds the Contract Law provides, and section 59 of the Civil Wrongs Law, Cap. 148, has its own limits: the defence of voluntary assumption of risk does not apply where the wrong was a failure to perform a duty imposed by an enactment, and it is not available at all against a child under twelve.
The accident involved a hire car in Cyprus.
Liability between drivers, the direct right of action against the insurer and the position where the other vehicle was uninsured or was never traced are dealt with on the road traffic page. The position of the hire company and the terms of your rental agreement are separate, and both should be sent to us as they were issued.
How long do I have to bring a claim?
A claim brought in Cyprus is subject to a three-year period under the Limitation of Actions Law 66(I)/2012. Where the case has a cross-border element, do not assume that is the period which applies to you, which is why the date and the place of the accident are the first two things we ask for. Where Cyprus law does apply, section 6(2) runs the period from the day the cause of action was complete, or from the day the injured person knew of the injury if that was later.
Written on this subject
This page sits within Litigation & Arbitration. See also clients abroad. Back to personal injury. Στα ελληνικά.