A LICENCE TO STEAL MONEY
As a new study shows ‘whiplash’ claimants get €18,500 – even though their actual loss was only €1,500 – why accident claims have become...
IRELAND has been labelled a ‘spoofer’s paradise’ for motor injury payouts.
The stinging criticism and calls for urgent reforms to our compensation system come as new figures show that a vast majority of such payouts were for whiplash.
It has also been revealed in the report by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board that the average award for a whiplash case here is a staggering €18,581, plus €1,456 in special damages.
The latter addendum covers medical expenses and loss of earnings, meaning the larger payout is 12 times that of an injured individual’s actual losses.
Reacting to the findings, the
Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association has demanded a cap on claims ‘as a matter of urgency’. ISME also described the situation – which has fuelled increases in insurance premiums for motorists – as ‘farcical’ and said many claims are considered to be fraudulent.
Giving weight to the concern expressed, the average payout for whiplash here is 4.4 times higher than in the UK, as was shown in a report released by the Personal Injuries Commission in September. And we pay double the EU average for our motor insurance.
The PIAB report found that whiplash made up 70.8% of all personal-injury motor claims in the first six months of 2018. The board assessed approximately 4,500 awards, with the average for whiplash found to be €18,581.
ISME CEO Neil McDonnell said: ‘It is farcical that we pay out five times the award paid in the UK for whiplash, especially bearing in mind that UK payouts are generous by comparison with those in other countries.
‘The Irish College of General Practitioners considers most whiplash claims to be spurious.
‘We must introduce a legislative cap on general damages as a matter of urgency.’
Insurance Ireland joined the chorus of industry representatives calling for a new law to curtail the costs of whiplash payouts.
Insurance Ireland CEO Kevin Thompson said: ‘This 2018 data further highlights the urgent need for a legislative response to high whiplash costs… What is needed now is a timeline for the Judicial Council Bill so the opportunity for reform of high whiplash costs is not missed, and we deliver a sustainable and predictable personalinjury compensation system.’
According to the report, 55% of claimants in whiplash cases were awarded compensation between €10,000 and €20,000, with 88% of whiplash claimants receiving a total award under €30,000.
The average award for all motor cases contained in the report was €20,472 in general damages and €2,326 in special damages.
The findings come less than two months after Judge Nicholas Kearns, former president of the High Court, hit out at our compensation culture. He said: ‘If you take as a starting point that we have one of the most generous compensation systems in Europe, that the risk of detection if you pursue a fraudulent or exaggerated claim is virtually zero and the risk of prosecution is virtually zero, you can see very quickly the capacity for abuse of our compensation system is very real.’
The managing director of Insuremycars.ie, Jonathan Hehir, said that the PIAB report gives weight to the contention that whiplash claims and payouts are too common and too high in Ireland, adding that it negatively impacts motorists when it comes to insurance premiums.
‘There is currently a strong sense of entitlement amongst a small, but significant, cohort of people in Ireland, who believe that if they are involved in the smallest of tips they are entitled to a big pay day,’ said Mr Hehir.
‘Pretending to have whiplash is generally seen as a victimless crime. But it is this small cohort of people that is making it so difficult for the genuine claimants and also driving up the costs of car insurance for the general public.’
A spokesman for THE Alliance for Insurance Reform said the focus of the Government should be on passing key legislative reform and establishing the Garda Insurance Fraud Unit to crack down on compensation culture.
IT has long been an open secret that a compensation culture exists in this country.
To describe that same culture as rampant would hardly be an exaggeration. Even if it is only through anecdotal evidence, we all know of incidences where so-called injured parties abused the system for their own financial benefit.
Now it emerges that the average award from the Personal Injuries Assessment Board to people claiming to have suffered whiplash is €18,581. This figure is more than 12 times the typical amount it actually costs the claimant in terms of medical expenses, loss of earnings and so on.
By way of putting it in perspective, compensation awards for whiplash in Ireland are five times higher than in the UK. And, of course, insurance companies ultimately pass on the cost to all their customers.
Insurance premiums in this country are almost double the EU average. So money is effectively being taken out of the pockets of honest, law-abiding citizens.
Nobody, least of all the Irish Daily Mail, disputes that people who have actually been injured should be eligible for redress. But the galling thing is that everybody knows the reality of what is going on.
It is quite obvious that there is any number of invented claims regarding mystery motorists crashing into cars, before zooming off never to be seen again. Equally, there are also myriad cases where a driver’s rear bumper may have been lightly touched by another vehicle; yet even if the claimant suffers no serious loss or injury, large awards are routinely granted.
This is completely wrong. Under our legal system, it is the responsibility of the courts to determine liability and damage and – where appropriate – to make awards.
But there is an onus on our political leaders to decide on the scale of compensation, the level of proof needed and so on. Accordingly, it is up to the Justice Minister to set up a new regime that puts an end to this outrageous state of affairs.
It is less than two months since Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, former president of the High Court, hit the nail on the head. He said: ‘If you take as a starting point that we have one of the most generous compensation systems in Europe, that the risk of detection if you pursue a fraudulent or exaggerated claim is virtually zero and the risk of prosecution is virtually zero, you can see very quickly that the capacity for abuse of our compensation system is very real.’ Never, in this newspaper’s opinion, has a truer word been spoken.