[The disability concept in private accident insurance]

Last year the German personal accident insurers introduced a new set of General Conditions, the "AUB 88". These define permanent disability as the "permanent impairment of the insured's physical or mental faculties", whereas the former conditions defined it as the "permanent impairment of the ability to work". The new definition of permanent disability is something that the medical expert will also have to come to terms with when assessing a claim. Here he must first of all bear in mind that the consequences of an accident affecting limbs or sensory organs have to be assessed--as hitherto--on the basis of the "Gliedertaxe" or scale of disability benefits, which establishes degrees of disability for the loss of, or loss of the use or function of, limbs or sensory organs. If other parts of the body are affected, then, in accordance with Article 7 I. (2) AUB 88, "the degree to which, from a strictly medical point of view, normal physical or mental faculties are handicapped" shall be decisive. In such cases, therefore, it is no longer merely a question of whether and to what degree the insured is able to work. An assessment of permanent disability may not take non-medical circumstances into account.