A human touch
A good three years ago, lawyers and experts from Germany and across Europe discussed monetary compensation for accident victims' bereaved family members. The then German president, Christian Wulff, made his position quite clear: rules on such claims would add a human dimension to the otherwise impersonal law.
Experts also asked for legislative rules: Financial compensation for the pain and suffering of families of those killed would be called "funeral money." It would "be understood as a symbol of compassion for emotional suffering and convey a sense of justice." But since the mills of legislation in Germany can grind very slowly, nothing has happened yet. The German Greens have recently undertaken a foray into this issue.
Varying laws across Europe
Other European countries resolved the matter long ago. Italy, France, Great Britain and Austria are familiar with claims for accident victims' families. Sometimes families receive 100,000 euros ($110,000) or more. In a Europe of open borders, this is an aspect of the law that needs to be standardized. It's a shame that harmonizing legislation in the European Union has proven to be extraordinarily tough: standardization attracts opposition and protests about the implications changes will have on different countries' traditions and legal systems. But the more the European Union becomes intertwined, the more inequalities arise from the merge. In France, such payments are handled far more generously than Germany, for example. Is the pain of German families less than that of French or Spanish families?
Inequality offends a sense of justice
The different approaches create a feeling among the bereaved that there is a victims class system. Among the dead of the Germanwings flight were two passengers with US passports - Lufthansa, Germanwings' parent company, will address their high damage claims under US law and will have to dig much deeper in the company's pockets to pay them. The amounts at issue in the United States can be excessive, and Europe should not actually follow the American example.
But a uniform law for damages in the case of accidents - payable after a death as a bereavement benefit - would be a step in the right direction. It would benefit the families affected but, at the same time, clear rules would mean bad business for lawyers who go about ambulance chasing to profit from the bereaved. Half a dozen legal firms in Germany vied to represent the Germanwings' victims' friends and relatives. The money they earn from additional trials and appeals could be used to pay the relatives of the crash victims instead.
Money doesn't heal pain
Of course, the debate also includes an ethical aspect. Money cannot bring back the dead. But money can make life easier for relatives and offer them reassurance - at least initially. Money pays for psychologists, caregivers, a move, a career break - whatever can be done to improve the situation of those left behind after a tragic accident.
Bereavement benefits can also be seen as a sign of sympathy felt by society and the person or group that caused the accident: They cannot take back what happened, but they can make the time after the accident less difficult. Incidentally, the greatest opponents of the legislation work in the insurance industry. But let's be honest, they're making enough already and will end up passing on the cost to policyholders anyway. They should stop blocking the law.
Bereaved families would find clear rules easier to handle at an already difficult time, and, at the very least, they would curb the survivors' growing sense of outrage. Many feel that Lufthansa's compensation offer is far too low and, thus, an insult to their dead relatives, even if the son's, daughter's or spouse's worth can, of course, never be measured by money.
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