Increase in Number of Injury Compensation Claims in Ireland

by | Oct 1, 2012

According to the 6 month Interim Report released last week by the Injuries Board Ireland, the number of injury compensation claims in Ireland rose 4.1 percent over the comparable period in 2011.

A total of 14,669 applications for assessment were received by the Injuries Board Ireland during the first six months of 2012, resulting in 5,180 accepted assessments and injury compensation settlements in excess of 109 million Euros. The largest proportion of injury compensation claims in Ireland remained road traffic accidents (59.4 percent) with public liability claims for compensation (27.2 percent) and work injury compensation claims (13.4 percent) making up the remainder.

A number of reasons were suggested for the increase in injury compensation claims in Ireland by Patricia Byron – Chief Executive of injuriesboard.ie – including a tendency for claimants to pursue lower value claims in the recessionary environment and claimants also having a better understanding of their rights due to the volume of information which was now available online.

Ms Byron also noted a number of issue-specific applications for assessment – such as claims raised by Thalidomide survivors and those who had received the recalled DePuy ASR hip replacement systems – which were released to the courts as liability remains in dispute for Thalidomide claims and no compensation benchmark has yet been established for claims against DePuy Orthopaedics Inc.

The Interim Report also revealed that there had been no change in the length of time it takes for the Injuries Board Ireland to process an application for assessment (7 months) once the defendant has given their consent for a claim to be assessed, and that the average value of accepted injury compensation claims in Ireland was slightly down on the corresponding figure for 2011 at 21,049 Euros.

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