Ex gratia

An ex gratia payment is money paid as a matter of goodwill, without the payer accepting a strict legal duty to pay it.

In a Malaysian road accident context, this term matters most for claims to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, whose payouts for injuries caused by uninsured drivers are treated as discretionary rather than an automatic entitlement under the governing agreement. That does not mean such claims are refused arbitrarily, but it does mean the process differs from suing an insurer that is contractually bound to pay.

Understanding a payment’s basis, whether it is owed as of right or offered as goodwill, helps you judge how an offer compares with what the evidence supports.

Claiming against an uninsured driver explains how this affects that route.