Is there a specialist accident lawyer in Portugal?

No. Anyone searching for a “specialist road traffic accident lawyer” or a “specialist workplace accident lawyer” is looking for a title that, in Portugal, the Portuguese Bar Association grants to no one. The title of specialist lawyer may only be used by those who have received it from the Bar and only in the fields it itself recognises. Accidents are not among them.

It is worth explaining why, especially for anyone looking for a lawyer after an accident.

What is the title of specialist lawyer?

The Bar Association’s statute, the Estatuto da Ordem dos Advogados (Lei n.º 145/2015, de 9 de setembro, in its current wording), allows any lawyer to state the fields in which they mainly practise. Calling oneself a specialist is a different matter. The title of specialist lawyer is a formal designation, granted only by the Portuguese Bar Association, and one that only those who hold it may use.

The conditions for granting it are set out in the general regulation on specialisms, the Regulamento Geral das Especialidades (Regulamento n.º 9/2016, de 6 de janeiro, in its current wording). They require more than ten years of uninterrupted registration with the Bar, genuine practice of law in the field invoked throughout that period and recognition, by the Bar itself, of specific competence, both theoretical and practical, assessed on the basis of the candidate’s record and a public oral examination before a panel for the specialism.

Nor is the title retained automatically. Every five years, the specialist lawyer must submit to the Bar’s General Council a record proving the practice and training acquired in the field, failing which the title is automatically lost. It should also be noted that in November 2024 the Bar approved a new regulation on specialisms, which may raise the requirement to more than fifteen years of registration and broaden the list, but which as of now does not appear to have been published or to be in force.

Which specialisms does the Portuguese Bar Association recognise?

The annex to the Regulamento Geral das Especialidades lists the fields in which the Portuguese Bar Association grants the title. There were fourteen in the initial version. Later in 2016, the recognition of Maritime Law brought the total to fifteen:

• Administrative Law
• Tax Law
• Employment Law
• Banking and Financial Law
• European Law
• Intellectual Property, Industrial Property and Competition Law
• Constitutional Law
• Criminal Law
• Company Law
• Family and Minors Law
• Consumer Law
• Environmental Law
• Gender Equality Law
• Health Law and Bioethics
• Maritime Law

Go through the list. Road accidents, workplace accidents and civil liability do not appear among the specialisms that the Portuguese Bar Association recognises.

“specialist road traffic accident lawyer”: why the title does not exist

Road accidents are governed, in essence, by the law of civil liability and by the compulsory motor insurance regime. Neither of these matters constitutes an autonomous specialism recognised by the Bar. For that reason, “specialist road traffic accident lawyer” is not, strictly speaking, a title that anyone can use in Portugal, however often the phrase is searched for by those who have been injured in an accident.

Anyone who uses the phrase is, in practice, describing their main field of work, which the Bar’s statute permits. What they may not do is present it as a certified specialism. When you come across the phrase on a website or in an advertisement, read it this way: it means practice in the field, not a title from the Bar.

And “specialist workplace accident lawyer”?

The same reasoning applies to the phrase “specialist workplace accident lawyer”, but here there is a nuance. The Bar’s list includes Employment Law and the question is a fair one: would a specialist in that field not, by extension, be certified in workplace accidents?

It is not quite that straightforward. Compensation for workplace accidents is set out in a dedicated statute, Lei n.º 98/2009, de 4 de setembro, which governs matters with no true parallel elsewhere in employment law: the assessment of incapacities, the calculation of pensions and of compensation, the intervention of the medical board (junta médica) and the special proceedings that run in the labour courts with a conciliation stage led by the public prosecutor (Ministério Público).

The title of specialist in Employment Law certifies competence in the field of employment as a whole, from the contract to dismissal. It does not, in itself, certify practice under this specific regime for workplace accidents. Here too, “specialist workplace accident lawyer” is not a formal title. It is the everyday way of describing those who work in this area.

Why the lawyers at NAA do not use the title

The lawyers at NAA — Sociedade de Advogados devote a substantial part of their practice to road accidents and to workplace accidents. Even so, none of them hold themselves out as a specialist road traffic accident lawyer or as a specialist workplace accident lawyer, because the Portuguese Bar Association does not grant the title in these fields and only those who hold it may use it. Those are the rules of the profession and we comply with them. When we describe our work, we speak instead of practice and experience as a workplace accident lawyer and as a road accident lawyer, in the everyday sense of the phrases.

How to choose a lawyer for an accident case

Without an official title to serve as a shortcut, the choice comes down to verifiable criteria. These four can be confirmed in a first conversation:

• Genuine practice in the field. Ask how long the lawyer has worked on accident cases and what kind of cases they handle. Experience in negotiating with insurers and in pursuing compensation claims through the courts cannot be acquired overnight.
• Knowledge of the courts’ decisions. The amount of compensation for personal injury is argued on the basis of case law. A lawyer who follows the decisions of the higher courts knows what has been awarded in cases comparable to yours.
• The means to prove the harm. Proving personal injury rests on medical and expert reports. Check whether the lawyer works with doctors independent of the insurers, because it is that documentation that supports the claim for compensation.
• Transparency on fees. The method of calculation should be explained in writing before the work begins. Bear in mind that Portuguese law prohibits the quota litis agreement. Fees cannot depend exclusively on the outcome, as they would if they amounted to a mere percentage of any compensation eventually recovered. We explain the criteria laid down by law in our article on how much a lawyer costs in Portugal.

If you have already received an offer from the insurer, take the document with you to that first conversation. Assessing that offer is, as a rule, the most useful starting point.