Paying way too much for falls and blunders
GIVEN how she takes her life into her hands every time she walks out the door, it’s a miracle Lina Misiunaite made it to Ireland from her native Poland in one piece. The poor woman fell in her local Lidl and damaged her knee. No sooner had it healed and the mother-of-four took a second tumble – onto a chip in Liffey Valley, causing further injury to her bad knee.
Before that she had road accident. Just how much punishment can a gal take?
The only upside for Lina, who admitted she was ‘unlucky’ as she sued the shopping centre for failing to warn her of the danger posed by a single French fry, is that she can be financially compensated for her mishaps. She pocketed €10,000 from her Lidl accident and €40,000 from the chip incident, with the judge calling her ‘an honest witness’.
Lina may be new Irish but her accidentprone nature puts her right at home here. She has something in common with Ann Marie Mongans, for instance – who has bagged her seventh compensation payment last month, bringing to €111,000 her lifetime total in damages. Her most recent cheque for €5,000 is her smallest yet – a mere token for injuries the judge said she exaggerated, arising from an accident she had as a backseat passenger in her aunt’s car.
LINA may also find a soulmate in Anthony Lynch who has just had his ninth successful personal injury claim, bringing his total to €113,500. Over the years, he got €20,000 for a wonky toilet seat, €7,500 from eating a burger made of horsemeat – he also sued after swallowing a bone buried in a chicken nugget.
No wonder the judge called him a ‘very unfortunate accident-prone individual’. Whether M’lud’s carefully chosen words dripped with sarcasm or scorn we will never know but one thing is sure – patience is drying up at the revolving door of personal injury cases that now helps define our court system.
How much time and judicial brainpower is squandered on ‘slippers and trippers’? In the UK there are caps on such payouts – not here, though. Now motor insurers want the Inju- ries Board empowered to assess more claims and prevent so many cases going to court.
ZERO tolerance for serial plaintiffs and standardised payments for injuries could also keep our compo culture in check. What might stop that, though, is the economic importance of personal injury litigation to the legal profession. The internet is full of ‘no win no fee’ advertising, telling of the client who got €1.4m for slipping on grapes in Tesco or €60,000 for tripping over a pack of beer.
As she threw out the case taken by a fire officer who stepped on a plastic display in Dunnes, Judge Jacqueline Linnane served him with a €20,000 bill for costs while warning of consequences for claimants whose cases are dismissed. Perhaps there could also be consequences for lawyers who urge clients to run to court for the flimsiest reason.