Judges draft payout guidelines amid pressure to cut personal injury awards
JUDGES have drafted long-awaited guidelines on personal injury awards after comparing Irish payouts with those in other countries.
A committee of judges delivered draft guidelines to the board of the Judicial Council last month and these will now be considered at a meeting of the council in early February.
If accepted then, new rules on award levels could be adopted much earlier than previously anticipated.
Judges are facing pressure to slash award levels for certain injuries amid concern awards are out of step with those in other jurisdictions and contributing to higher insurance premiums.
In a statement on the Judicial Council website, its personal injuries guidelines committee said it was “exceptionally cognisant” of the need to ensure the guidelines were “anchored in reality”. It also said it was aware many interest groups and individuals felt the cost of insurance was “prohibitive” and “having a significant effect on their ability to trade profitably and in some cases to trade at all”.
As part of its work, the committee, chaired by High Court President Mary Irvine, compared Irish court awards with those made in other jurisdictions where the standard of living is similar to that in Ireland.
The committee’s findings were not disclosed in the statement and the guidelines are not set to be published until they are adopted.
A 2018 report by the Personal Injuries Commission found the average amount paid out in Ireland for whiplash injuries was 4.4 times higher than in England and Wales.
The Judicial Council is due to consider the draft guidelines on February 5.
The statement indicates the committee did not take submissions from any interested parties, other than the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB), during the process of drafting the guidelines.
In a 2019 submission to a review of civil justice, the PIAB hit out at what it described as “inconsistency” by judges in their use of the Book of Quantum, the current guide for injury award levels. The argument for new guidelines has been bolstered by recent Court of Appeal rulings which have tended to significantly cut awards made by the High Court.
Among the groups anxiously awaiting the publication of the new guidelines is the Alliance for Insurance Reform.
In a statement, it said the “single most important reform” that can impact on the cost of insurance would be “a dramatic reduction in general damages for minor injuries to reflect international norms and norms already established by the Court of Appeal”.