Injury Compensation News

New statistics from the Injuries Board Ireland show women accounted for 72 per cent of the 1,443 personal liability awards in 2009 that were settled for the amount recommended by the Injuries Board Ireland.

However, when presenting the compensation award statistics, there is no explanation whatsoever regarding the cases that were not settled through the Injuries Board Ireland process but went to the High Court, where the awards can be significantly higher or were settled by negotiation with an insurance company.

The true statistics do not in fact exist, since the vast majority of injury compensation claims that go to court are settled privately.   Presenting a subset of the overall statistics without qualifying explanations is somewhat misleading.

The data only covers awards that were proposed by the Injuries Board Ireland and then accepted by both parties – and therefore does not include certain categories of injury compensation (cases where the defendant does not admit full liability, medical negligence claims, complicated cases – perhaps involving contributory negligence, defamation cases, phycological injuries like PTSD,  etc).

What the published statistics do not reveal the reasons why women represent such as high percentage of the settlements made by the Injuries Board Ireland.

Are women more likely to accept the Injuries Board Ireland recommendation whereas men are more likely to want a higher compensation amount? It seems highly likely that this is in fact the case.

It should be remembered that the statistics only represent a small subset of the injury compensation claims in Ireland because they are only award recommendations by the Injuries Board Ireland that have been accepted by both parties.

The category of personal injury known as “slips, trips, and falls” accounted for two thirds of all public liability awards. But perhaps this seemingly very high percentage is because they are precisely the type of small, straightforward personal injury claim that the Injuries Board Ireland is able to handle efficiently. The comparatively fast processing times for these types of simple claim is one of key benefits of the Injuries Board Ireland.

Just over half of the incidents occurred in privately owned buildings such as pubs or cinemas and just under a quarter of the awards were made against public authorities. However, the statistics might perhaps simply mean that public authorities are just more likely to accept the recommendations of the Injuries Board Ireland, whereas private building owners are more likely to defend compensation claims. The only way of determining the true percentage of claims against public authorities is additional statistical information.

The Injuries Board Ireland statistics show that 57 per cent of compensation claims were for amounts of less than €20,000.  However, this is certainly a self-serving statistic aimed at reducing the injury award expectations of the general public. In fact, the Injuries Board Ireland seems keen to promote its role in reducing the costs of injury compensation claims, stating that it is “delivering €100m in savings each year”.  If the figure is great, it is great news for insurance companies and also beneficial to the general public, but comes at the cost of victims receiving lower amounts of compensation.

An article by Patricia McDonagh in today’s Irish Independent shows that the general public has clearly completely lost faith in the Injuries Board Ireland.

There were 7,099 personal injury cases filed in the High Court and 6,999 cases filed in the Circuit Court in 2009.   This compares to 746 cases filed in the High Court in 2005, the year after the Injuries Board Ireland was set up.  So while the Injuries Board process was initially effective in persuading people to forgo their right to litigation and legal council, people soon realised that they would get higher compensation by hiring a solicitor and at least threatening to go to court (very few cases actually arrive in court).   The trend toward avoiding settling cases through the Injuries Board process and going to court is accelerating. It is believed that up to 90% of all claimants now use a solicitor.

According to McDonagh “New figures show people are going to court because they can receive higher compensation awards and get their legal costs if they are successful.”

The Irish Independent quotes senior counsel David Nolan’s explanation of why so many people are not accepting the compensation amounts recommended by the Injuries Board: ”People realise that the value of their case is better being determined by a court rather than a civil service quagmire like InjuriesBoard.ie.”

It is unfair to call the injuries Board a ‘quagmire’ because in fact, it has actually speeded up the personal injury claims process in Ireland by stopping insurance companies from dragging out the process over as many years as possible.

The InjuriesBoard.ie is one of multiple Web sites developed by Injuries Board Ireland to deal with some of the most common types of personal injuries claims.

The InjuriesBoard.ie home page design is well designed and clear for first time visitors. The InjuriesBoard.ie resisted the temptation to fill it with too much information. The focus of the home page InjuriesBoards.ie is clearly to direct first time visitors to relevant information for claimants and respondents.

The InjuriesBoard.ie Web site has a very interesting feature called The Estimator that allows site visitors see the Book of Quantum estimates for different type of injuries.  However, it looks like the award amounts have not been updated in some time because they appear low compared with awards currently reported by solicitors. The Estimator does not clearly explain the factors that impact the size of injury compensation awards, such as ongoing medical expenses or loss of earnings.

The InjuriesBoard.ie Web site does not explain in any way the rights in relation to getting help from a solicitor in making a claim. In fact, the entire topic of legal representation seems to be avoided as much as possible.  The difficult issue of O’Byrne letters is also not covered in a way that you might expect. Given the complexity and potential pitfalls of such letters, the advice on InjuriesBoard.ie in relation to these difficult litigation letters is completely inadequate. It could be considered negligent that there is no warning to seek legal advice before attempting to write such an important legal letter.

There is no clear information about the types of personal injury claims where a solicitor is always required. For example, it is not clearly explained that a solicitor is required for children’s injury claims, such as playground accident claims or school accident claims because such settlements must be approved in court.

The InjuriesBoard.ie Web site does not clearly explain when it is not possible to use the services of InjuriesBoard.ie, such as medical negligence claims.

The clear focus of the InjuriesBoard.ie Web site is information and not advice, with no warnings about potential difficulties with making a claim without the help of a solicitor. For example, the entire issue of contributory negligence is completely ignored, probably because InjuriesBoard.ie cannot deal with such cases.

The focus of InjuriesBoard.ie is clearly personal injury claims, road traffic accident claims, and injuries at work.  However, there is very little information about specific types of injury claims in the areas it does cover.  So, for example, while injuries at work is mentioned, there is no information about construction accident claims or farm accident claims.