Injury Compensation News

Ms Justice Mary Irvine has dismissed a personal injury claim by a student because he “deliberately misled” the court.  He was lucky that she just dismissed the claim and did not inflict additional punishment.  Alan Danagher, a student aged 22 from County Laois, was claiming against the owners of Mr O’s Nightclub in Templemore, County Tipperary, for assault on December 26th, 2005.

Mr. Danagher claimed that he was knocked to the ground by two third-party individuals and then assaulted while being forcefully removed from the premises by nightclub staff.

There was no doubt that he sustained some level of injuries when hitting his head on the ground and he was injured in a public place with witnesses. There appeared to be questions about contributory negligence and the level of injuries sustained.

There were a number of factors that indicate that Mr. Danagher was going to receive substantial compensation for his level of injuries:

• He attended his GP doctor 50 times, indicating extremely severe problems

• He attended physiotherapy 70 times, indicating a sustained injury problem

• His claim was very well prepared, including both physical and psychological injuries

• The impact on his lifestyle was documented, including being unable to play sports or participate in certain social activities and dropping out of Waterford Institute of Technology due to depression.

However, Mr. Danagher’s case was damaged by his own actions:

• He updated his Facebook page to show his continued sporting activities, including hurling, rugby, and football.

• He also updated his Facebook page to show social activities, as Ms Justice Irvine described as his “apparent enthusiasm for nightclubs, dancing and drinking”.

• He denied participation in a charity parachute jump six months after he sustained his injury, despite photographic evidence, which Ms Justice Irvine described as “an act of dishonesty done to advance his claim”.

Some Lessons

A personal injury case is helped if you seek medical attention whenever it is required and damaged by not receiving medical attention when you do actually need medical help.  But while the medical records of repeated medical treatments will certainly help build the case for the severity of an injury and therefore the amount of financial compensation, excessive visits for relatively minor injuries will not fool an experienced judge.  And there are no inexperienced judges.

Be well-prepared for court and ensure you have all your facts correct. Never under any circumstances try to mislead the court.

Claire Noone, now aged 25, has been awarded 4.35 million euro in the High Court for a car crash in November 2005 at Johnstown, Enfield, County Meath, in which her boyfriend John Larkin died.

Noone was ejected from the car during the impact so there was a question about wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision and therefore contributory negligence.

The result was severe lower back injuries that makes walking anything other than a short distance painful.

It was stated in court that the crash occured with another car went through a red traffic light and hit the car driven by Claire Noone with John Larkin in the front passenger seat.

The judge, Mr Justice John Quirke, was highly critical of the fact that injury compensation law in Ireland only allowed lump sum payments rather than annual payments, which he described as a “lottery situation”.

The Health and Safety Authority has launched a three year plan to improve workplace safety and reduce injuries at work. The HSA estimates that about 150 Irish workers suffer an injury at work every day. The HSA also estimates that workplace accidents cost the Irish economy over three billion euros annually, not including the cost of injury claims.

Taxi driver Gerard McWilliams of Tallaght, County Dublin has settled an injury claim against Eircom for a twisted ankle that was hurt on a manhole.

Mr McWilliams claimed he was injured when he twisted his ankle on the edge of an old P&T steel manhole cover outside his home.  Mr McWilliams said he was in immediate pain and was taken to Tallaght Hospital.  He claimed that he had ongoing pain and discomfort and following initial treatment, he was eventually fitted with a plaster cast. Mr McWilliams claimed ongoing pain.

The compensation claim against Eircom stated that they were negligent and in breach of duty of care towards McWilliams in relation to their ongoing maintenance, repair, upkeep, and supervision of the manhole cover.

Unlike most cases, this injury claim was not initially settled out of court and Eircom decided to contest the injury claim to the High Court.

Barney Quirke, counsel for Eircom, questioned Mr. McWIlliams about 13 or 14 previous personal injuries claims, mentioning incidents in 1987, 1990, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2001.  Mr McWilliams stated that he may have been involved in 10 or 11 personal injury claims in the past but could not remember the exact details.

The number of claims by McWilliams was defended by his own counsel as “accident-prone” while McWilliams emphasized that the accidents “were not my fault”.

The court was told that McWilliams had been described by a judge in a previous injury claim case as  “the luckiest or the unluckiest man” due to the number of injuries from accidents.

However, the number of past injury compensation claims has no direct influence on the validity of the current injury compensation claims, unless some intent at fraud is demonstrated. Mr McWilliams claim was professionally prepared with appropriate medical evidence and there was no proof that this particular claim was in any way incorrect.

The claim was settled out of court, like the vast majority of personal injury claims.

Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland yesterday morning, Professor Tom O’Dowd  of Trinity College, Dublin has estimated that there are about 30,000 referral letters from GPs that have not been processed at Tallaght Hospital.  Professor O’Dowd is Professor of General Practice and head of the department of Public Health and Primary Care in Trinity College, Dublin.

GPs are considered the primary care providers in the Irish health system and a referral to secondary care is because a GP has detected either symptoms or clinical signs that suggest a serious illness such as cancer or hearth disease.

The problem is not only unopened referral letters but also to letters from family doctors that had not reached consultants.
Professor  O’Dowd  stated on national radio that the ignored referrals were a “major dereliction of duty” by the hospital that ‘exposed the hospital to long-term legal consequences”.

The hospital is disputing the accusation of that there are excessive numbers of unopened referral letters.  However, it has already been confirmed that 3,498 referral letters that had not been reviewed by a consultant in October 2009.

The legal consequences really depend on medical consequences of the delay obtaining secondary care. Many illnesses benefit from early diagnosis so it is inevitable that the ignored referral letters resulted in some dreadful suffering.

If you believe that a referral letter has been ignored, you need to gather the necessary medical evidence and contact a solicitor.

William Corrigan-Hayden, aged eight, of Bohernabreena Cottages, Tallaght, was awarded €9,500 damages in the Circuit Civil Court for hurting his foot at the age of six when a slab of marble from a mantelpiece fell on it.  The case was taken against Liam Heeney, the Hills Industrial Estate, Lucan, County Dublin, who had installed the fireplace.  The boy fully recovered from his injury.

The Health and Safety Authority and Road Safety Authority have issued new guidelines “Driving for Work Guidelines”  that provide “an overview of legislation, how to carry out risk assessments and highlights the significant benefits for businesses and the wider community when work related road safety is managed effectively”.

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act of 2005 means that employers have a legal duty to protect the health and safety of workers who drive for work.

About one third of all road traffic accidents involve a work vehicle and about 76 people die in work-related crashes annually.

The HSA reports that 42% of Irish businesses have no driving for work policy as part of their health and safety management system.  This raises questions about the liability of employers when employees are involved road traffic accidents.