COMMENTS ON THE NEW IRANIAN LAW OF COMPULSORY LIABILITY INSURANCE OF MOTOR VEHICLE OWNERS

The problem of compensating victims of traffic accidents is certainly one of the most important problems of a civil liability system. On the other hand, liability insurance is the main financial safeguard for the payment of the compensation of these victims. The old Iranian law in this regard was passed on 1968. It had some merits and some inconveniences. It has been replaced by the new law of 2008. The aim of this article is to provide some comments and criticisms of this new law. In general the new law has taken an effective step toward a better compensation of victims by recognizing expressly the direct action of the victims, elaborating the sphere of third parties, permitting the intervention of the insurer in the criminal proceeding against tortfeasor, insuring the liability of any person who drives the vehicle (with or even without the permission of the owner), increasing the minimum liability of the insurer & the motor insurance Bureau, equal treatment of the victims (in spite of the unequal treatment of civil liability system), relative acceleration of the process of compensation , are some of advantages of the new law.