Critical decision on Personal Injuries Payouts imminent, says RGDATA
RGDATA has said that the Judicial Council is due to consider draft Judicial Personal Injuries Guidelines on Friday 5th February. Once Guidelines are adopted they will be published on the Judicial Council website.
The Guidelines will replace the Book of Quantum when Section 99 of the Judicial Council Act 2019, which is currently scheduled for this July, commences.
RGDATA supporting call for payouts
RGDATA is supporting the Alliance for Insurance Reform’s call for payouts for fully recoverable minor injuries to be slashed by 80%. Read the editorial by AIR to be published in the Irish Independent this week.
The Alliance has called on the Judiciary to reduce damages for minor injuries by 80%. As the Judicial Council prepares Personal Injuries Guidelines to replace the Book of Quantum, the Alliance for Insurance Reform has called on the judiciary to have regard to the common good in their deliberations and reduce awards for minor personal injuries by 80%.
Peter Boland, Director of the Alliance for Insurance Reform, including retailers, said “The single biggest element of the cost of insurance, as determined by the Cost of Insurance Working Group, the Personal Injuries Commission and the Central Bank’s National Claims Information Database, is compensation; and general damages for minor injuries account for the vast majority of compensation payouts. What we award for minor, fully recovered injuries in Ireland is 4.4 times higher than in England & Wales and further multiples higher than other European jurisdictions. An 80% reduction on minor injuries would only bring us down to where England and Wales currently are and would still be nowhere near the equivalent damages in other European countries – and England and Wales are further slashing their damages for minor whiplash injuries later this year.
“We call on the Judicial Council to have regard to the common good in reducing general damages for fully recovered minor injuries by at least 80% to reflect international norms and norms already established by the Court of Appeal.”
