Personal Injury: paper-based claims system faster and cheaper than litigation, says report

Personal injury specialists this week warned against compromising the rights of injured people in order to save money, after an Irish agency set up in April 2004 to deal with accident cases claimed to have saved more than a million euros in costs and reduced delays by keeping lawyers out of the system.


The Irish Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) has so far proved to be three times faster and four times cheaper than litigation, according to its first annual report.


It was set up by the government as part of a bid to reduce insurance premiums. The paper-based system handles general enquiries, registers claims and applications, helps deal with medical reports and advises on other aspects of the claim such as loss of earnings.


It has dealt with 13,000 applications this year, 5,000 of which have been settled or have gone on to be litigated. Previously, most cases took between three and four years to resolve. The remaining 8,000 are at various stages in PIAB's nine-month assessment process.


Ultimately PIAB can authorise an order for the defendant to pay up, which holds the same status as a court order, although if either party is unhappy they can proceed to court. However, three-quarters of PIAB assessments were accepted by the parties involved. PIAB chairwoman Dorothea Dowling insisted the board had succeeded in its aim towards 'early, honest and open disclosure'.


But a spokeswoman for the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers claimed the PIAB had been set up to reduce costs without taking any heed of the needs of injured people. 'Awards resulting from a quarter of the remaining cases which were actually handled by PIAB were turned down,' she said. 'We need much more time and scrutiny of the new system before it can be determined whether "faster" and "cheaper" equates to proper justice for injured people.'


She also complained that there was no evidence of insurance premiums falling in Ireland. 'Indeed, the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority has reported that profits in the insurance industry soared by 65% last year,' she said.