After a car accident in Shenzhen, the other party refuses to pay and the insurance company plays dirty? How is compensation calculated? A lawyer breaks down four real questions.

Last Friday afternoon, Mr. Liu from Futian called, his voice still trembling. He had been sideswiped by a truck changing lanes on Nanping Expressway—his car was badly damaged, and he suffered minor injuries. The other driver admitted full responsibility, but the moment compensation came up, the buck-passing began—the insurance company said lost wages would be discounted, refused to acknowledge emotional distress, and insisted repairs be done at a designated shop. Mr. Liu asked: Does he really have no choice but to swallow his anger?
In fact, about 100,000 traffic accidents occur in Shenzhen every year, and many people, like Mr. Liu, get stuck at the stage where "determining liability is easy, but getting paid is hard." Today, I'll clarify the questions people ask about most, all at once.

Almost every client asks this question. Compensation isn't a one-size-fits-all figure—it's made up of more than a dozen components, with the core ones being medical expenses, lost wages, nursing costs, disability compensation, and compensation for emotional distress.
Take lost income as an example: if the person has a fixed income, it is calculated based on the actual reduction in income; if there is no fixed income, it is based on the average wage of employees in the same or a similar industry in Shenzhen in the previous year. Compensation for disability depends on the disability grade and the nature of the household registration. In 2025, Shenzhen's per capita disposable income of urban residents has exceeded 70,000 yuan, and the compensation base for a grade 10 disability is this figure multiplied by 20 years and then by 10%.
In Shenzhen's judicial practice, compensation for mental distress is typically around 10,000 yuan for a Grade 10 disability, increasing progressively with each higher grade, and can reach 100,000 yuan for Grade 1 or fatal cases. These figures are not arbitrary; they are supported by Article 1179 of the Civil Code and the adjudication guidelines of the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court.
To put it plainly, the compensation list must be itemized one by one; miss one item and you're simply throwing money away.
Mr. Chen, who is in foreign trade in Bao'an, was hit by a car running a red light in Longhua last year and suffered a level-10 disability. The insurance company initially agreed to pay only over 80,000 yuan, citing "insufficient proof of lost wages" and "mental damages not applicable." When Mr. Chen came to us, four months had already passed since the accident, and many receipts had not been fully kept.
After Zhi Ming Law Firm stepped in, they did three things: first, they retrieved surveillance footage and dashcam recordings from the accident site, establishing the other party's full liability beyond dispute; second, they guided Mr. Chen to obtain six consecutive months of salary statements and tax records, turning his lost income claim from a "verbal assertion" into "ironclad evidence"; third, they commissioned a forensic appraisal institution to reassess the disability grade and pursued compensation for emotional distress.
In the end, the total compensation secured for the client in this case exceeded 2 million yuan. Insurance companies aren't immune to being sued—what matters is whether the evidence chain in your hands is strong enough to force them back to the negotiating table. Our original "Zhiming Artistic Litigation Method" system won an innovation award from the Shenzhen Lawyers Association. Its core principle is simple: never fight a battle unprepared, and make every piece of evidence strike right at the opponent's pain points.
Shenzhen traffic police generally issue the accident determination letter within 10 days after inspecting the scene. If inspection and appraisal are required, the results will be available within 5 days after the vehicle is impounded. If you disagree with the determination, you may apply to the next higher-level traffic police department for review within 3 days from the date of receipt.
Note that these 3 days are calendar days, not business days—miss them and they're gone. There was a party in Nanshan who, convinced that "the other side had connections," refused out of spite to apply for review, and later, at the litigation stage, found it several times harder to overturn the liability determination. A review may not change the outcome, but at the very least it puts your objection on record and gives you leverage in subsequent compensation negotiations.
Not necessarily. Among the traffic accident cases we handle, about sixty percent are resolved during the pre-litigation mediation stage. A lawyer's role isn't to file a lawsuit right away, but to help you calculate the numbers clearly, fill in the gaps in evidence, and identify your negotiating opponent's weak points.
Just like Mr. Liu mentioned at the beginning of the article, after we got involved, we first sent a lawyer's letter to the insurance company, attaching complete proof of lost wages and a vehicle depreciation assessment report. Within a week, they agreed to compensate based on the actual losses, which was over 40,000 yuan more than the initial offer. The time saved, he used to recover from his injuries and get back to work, which was more worthwhile than being stuck in court.
If you've been in a traffic accident dispute in Shenzhen's Futian, Nanshan, Longhua, or any other district, and you're unsure about the compensation amount or can't get the insurance company to cooperate, you're welcome to come sit down with us at our firm. Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm is located at Room 1802, Tower A, Xintian Century Business Center, Shixia North 2nd Street, Futian District, and our phone number is 0755-25986969. With 26 years as an established law firm and over 10,000 cases handled, Director Shen Jinlong's team of lawyers has its own playbook for this kind of "how do I get my money back" situation.