Michael Monahan Solicitor

At the commencement of the system, the main exception to the non-payment of costs was children’s cases. All offers of settlement in children’s cases had to be heard by a Judge in Court. This usually means your Solicitor and Barrister will have their fees paid and the child’s money is lodged in full with the Office of the Accountant of the High Court to be invested on their behalf until the child reaches eighteen years of age. Costs incurred for lodging the claim, to obtaining medical reports and dealing with parent/next friend prior to the ruling should all be listed as an item of special damage and especially any extra expense and ruled on by the presiding Judge. That means the parent/next friend should have no expenses to pay arising out of the claim once it
is successful.

A second category applies if the injured party is ‘vulnerable’. There is no definition of what a vulnerable client is. Clearly, if you cannot read then you need someone to assist you to lodge a claim, but how do you determine who qualifies. Foreign

nationals with little English – do they qualify? There are cases already decided at showing that they may not. The definition in the legislation setting up the Board is that any costs which are ‘reasonable and necessary incurred’ can be considered for payment. Do not expect to have any Legal costs paid by the Injuries Board as the entire basis of its establishment was to save Insurance Companies money by transferring the cost of legal advice and compensation application onto the injured party.

For all road accidents or employer liability claims, they must all start with the Injuries Board process. If psychological injuries i.e. nervous breakdown/stress related claims they also start in the Injuries Board, however they are likely to be rejected and you are given a letter called an Authorisation by the Injuries Board to go ahead and issue proceedings in Court. Any aspect of medical negligence is also rejected by the Injuries Board system.

No. Remember the lawyer advises but you decide. It is your injury and you live with it. You may be in difficult financial circumstances and even though you are not recovered and advised not to settle you still accept the Assessment for financial reasons. It is your decision and you must live with it.

3 hints to guide you.

Have the medical advisers given a clear opinion on when you will have fully recovered? – if the answer is no then you should refuse the award.

Use the questions listed in the Appendix to guide you .

How do I know the award is sufficient?

The Book of Quantum provided by the Injury Board is just a guide . It is difficult for an injured party lodging their own claim to know what is the value of an injury. Only an experienced solicitor or barrister that deal with injury claims every day can assess the level of injury and your rate of recovery. They can give you an accurate valuation of what it is worth. This is the big problem with people lodging their own claim . They simply do not know if they are getting the value of the claim. They are in a system set up by Insurance Companies financed by Insurance Companies and run essentially run by ex- insurance employees . In difficult financial times for the Insurers how can the inexperienced injured party know they are getting a fair deal?

From the date of accident or incident causing injury to lodging claim the injured party has two years. If the injured party is a child they have two years after they turn eighteen to lodge a claim.

The time for insurance companies to investigate and decide if they treat your claim as an assessment is 90 days.

Estimated time after that when first assessment issues is nine months, but can be extended to 12 months.

The time allowed for an injured party to decide upon an offer received is 28 days from date of assessment including holidays. If no reply is received from the injured party the offer is deemed to be rejected.

Time allowed to insurance company to decide on assessment is 21 days.If no reply received then offer is deemed to be accepted.

Time from letter of acceptance return to receipt of cheque is three/four weeks.

The following are the main steps along the way.

a. Get Medical Report on Injury

b. Fill in Application Form having gathered the correct legal names of the Defendants and the time and date of the accident/incident.

c. Send off Application form completed to Injuries Board within two years of accident by Registered Post enclosing €45 fee and medical report.

d. Receive confirmation from Injuries Board that your Application has been received and validly accepted – this stops time running on the time you have to claim.

e. Await confirmation that the Defendant consents to the Injury Board dealing with the Claim. This is vital as the Board will not process any information until they have this consent. The Insurance Companies have 90 days to do this.

f. Consider obtaining up to date medicals and forwarding to the Injuries Board

g. Gather vouchers for all kinds of special damages to include hospital charges, medical treatment, car damage, loss of earnings, travel and expenses. All claims need vouchers to be accepted. Complete and return the special damages form supplied by Injuries Board and return .

h. Consider whether your injury has stabilised enough to accept settlement at the time of arrival of Assessment Letter.

i. If ongoing problems persist consider rejecting the offer and going ahead to issue Court proceedings. The 2010 Annual Report gave average completion time as 9 months .