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If you (or a close relative) are the victim of a crime in Finland, you may be paid compensation from State funds for the damage caused by the crime. The right to compensation is not limited by the nature of the crime.
If criminal damage has been caused by the use of a motor vehicle in traffic, the compensation will primarily be paid out from the insurance policy on the vehicle that caused the damage, pursuant to the Motor Liability Insurance Act (liikennevakuutuslaki).
Compensation may be paid out for personal injury and suffering caused by a crime.
'Personal injury' means disruption to one's state of health that can be verified by medical means. Such disruption could be physical or psychological.
'Suffering', on the other hand, means a feeling of mental anguish caused by the event in question and which does not require medically proven disruption to one's state of health.
You may be entitled to compensation if a close relative has died as a result of a crime. 'Close relative' means the parent, child or spouse of the deceased, or another person particularly close to the deceased.
If you have shouldered the responsibility for burying a person who has died as a result of a crime, you are entitled to compensation for reasonable costs incurred for the burial.
If a person who is particularly close to you has been the victim of a crime, you may be compensated for the reasonable, essential costs and loss of earnings incurred for your care of that person. 'Close relative' means the parent, child or spouse of the person who has suffered a personal injury, or another similarly close person.
If you have been a victim of a crime in Finland, you will generally have the right to compensation regardless of your nationality or where you live. Compensation may be refused, however, if your home was not in an EU country at the time of the crime or at the time when compensation was claimed and if the damage otherwise has a minor connection with Finland.
If you have a place of residence in Finland, you can also receive compensation in some circumstances for personal injury and suffering caused by a crime committed abroad.
Compensation may be paid out if your stay abroad was for work, study or another similar reason. Compensation may also be granted on a discretionary basis in other cases involving damage sustained abroad. In such cases, the factors to be considered will include what the connection is between the crime and Finland, the closeness of the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim of the crime, the nature of the damage, and your options for obtaining compensation elsewhere.
You must report the crime to the police. If the crime has not been reported or the police have not otherwise been made aware of the crime, compensation may only be paid out for special reasons.
You may submit a claim for compensation before the preliminary investigation has been completed or the court proceedings have ended. However, your claim may only be decided upon once the preliminary investigation has been completed. If charges have been brought, the matter may generally only be decided upon once the criminal case and compensation claims have been ruled upon by the court.
If the criminal case is heard by a court, you should endeavour to have your right to compensation upheld by means of a judgment. This means that you should present a claim for compensation against the offender during the court proceedings. Compensation for criminal damage is not generally paid out if you have failed to fulfil this obligation.
You may apply for compensation even if the offender has not been identified. You must enclose a copy of the police record from the preliminary investigation, or other reliable evidence of the events, with your compensation claim.
You must apply for compensation within three years of the date on which a judgment with legal force is issued concerning the compensation case. If the case has not been heard in court, compensation must be claimed within ten years of the date on which the crime was committed. There is only flexibility with these deadlines in special circumstances.
For example, does it cover the following?
– Material (non-psychological) damage:
– Psychological (moral) damage:
– Material (non-psychological) damage:
– Psychological damage:
Compensation is generally paid out as a single payment, with the exception of continuous compensation for loss of earnings and loss of maintenance. Those types of compensation are most often paid out in the form of repeated, monthly payments.
The amount of compensation to be awarded may be reduced if you have contributed to causing the injury through your own actions. For example, a reduction may be made if you started a fight that resulted in you being injured. On the other hand, any criminal record that you might have will not affect your chance of receiving compensation or the amount you receive.
In order to receive compensation, you must send the documents requested by the State Treasury (Valtiokonttori) so that your criminal-injury case can be processed. Your compensation claim may be rejected if you do not submit the necessary evidence.
As a general rule, your financial situation does not affect whether you will receive compensation or the amount of compensation to be paid out.
When the compensation decision is made, your financial situation is only taken into account if you have applied for compensation for considerable damage to items or to your finances on the grounds that you were helpless to prevent the damage from occurring.
If the compensation case is heard by a court, compensation is generally paid out in accordance with the court ruling. If the State Treasury deviates from the ruling handed down by the court in the compensation case, it will provide justification of the reasons for such deviation for you in its decision.
The offender will be obliged to pay you the compensation ordered by the court. The right to obtain compensation from the offender will, however, be transferred to the State to the extent that the State Treasury has awarded you compensation.
Medical costs and other costs are compensated for if they are essential and have a causal relationship with the damage or injury caused.
When determining the amount of compensation to be paid out for aches, pains and other temporary problems, consideration is given to the nature and severity of the damage or injury caused to you as well as the prevailing compensation practices. The amount of compensation to be paid out may not exceed the upper limit defined by law.
'Suffering' means the feeling of personal anguish caused to you as a result of an illegal offence. The compensation to be paid out will be determined based on the nature of the act in question. The amount of compensation will also be subject to the compensation limits defined by law.
An estimate of the earnings that you would have received if the crime had not been committed is taken as the starting point for determining any loss of earnings. Any income and benefits that you have received or could have received regardless of the damage or injury are deducted from that amount. The amount of compensation to be paid out may not exceed the maximum daily amount defined by law.
A basic deduction is made from the total amount of compensation for problems and suffering to be awarded. The amount of the basic deduction is EUR 220 for a crime committed in 2018.
No interest is paid on the compensation awarded.There is no minimum amount that can be awarded.
The total amount of compensation that you may be paid for personal injury and suffering caused by a crime is a maximum of EUR 61 500. Moreover:
The maximum compensation for each injury or damage does not apply to compensation for loss of earnings or maintenance when that compensation is paid on a continuous basis.
The maximum amount of compensation for damage to possessions and financial damage is EUR 31 000.
The maximum amounts of compensation to be paid to crime victims and the amount of the basic deduction are checked at three-year intervals. The next time that the amounts will be checked is at the beginning of 2021.
The amount of compensation awarded may not be more than the amount you claim. You may claim reasonable compensation where necessary. You may also refer to the amounts confirmed in the court ruling that forms the basis for your compensation claim.
Where necessary, you can obtain advice concerning your criminal-injury case from our customer-service team and from the person processing your compensation claim.
The compensation to be paid from public funds is secondary. This means that you should apply for compensation elsewhere to begin with, for example from your health-insurance policy and insurance company. This compensation will be deducted from the compensation to be awarded to you.
You may submit a written application for an advance compensation payment where necessary. An advance compensation payment may be made if the processing of your compensation case is delayed for reasons beyond your control and you are entitled to a significant amount of compensation.
The State Treasury will re-examine the case if new evidence emerges. You may be awarded compensation that was previously refused, or a larger amount of compensation, on the basis of the new evidence.
For example:
You will not be charged any fees for processing your compensation case.
Your compensation claim will be processed by the State Treasury.
You can either send your claim electronically to rikosvahingot@valtiokonttori.fi or print out the form and post it to:
State Treasury
P.O. Box 50
00054 State Treasury, Finland
The case will be processed by the State Treasury in writing. You will not be asked to appear in person during any stage of the process.
The average processing time is approximately seven months. You can find an up-to-date estimate of processing times on the State Treasury's website.
You can appeal in writing to the Insurance Court (Vakuutusoikeus) against a compensation decision that you have received within 30 days of the date when you were made aware of the decision. Guidelines on how to appeal are enclosed with the State Treasury's compensation decision.
You can find the form for claiming compensation and further information about claiming on the State Treasury's website at http://www.valtiokonttori.fi/ You can also contact our customer-service team on +358 295 50 2736 or e-mail rikosvahingot@valtiokonttori.fi.
You can find further information about compensation for criminal damage at http://www.valtiokonttori.fi/ You can also telephone the State Treasury if you need to. You can get help by calling +358 295 50 2736.
You can use a lawyer to claim compensation if you want to. However, you can only be paid compensation for the costs arising from making the claim if:
You can get advice and support from Victim Support Finland (Rikosuhripäivystys) (RIKU), for example. You can find this organisation's contact details on its website at http://www.riku.fi/
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