EXPLAINER: Personal Injuries Guidelines

The Personal Injury Guidelines were introduced on foot of a vote of the Judicial Council in March 2021. The Book of Quantum (older system) continues to apply to proceedings commenced prior to 24 April 2021.

The Personal Injuries Guidelines set guideline levels for personal injury compensation awards in Ireland.

These personal injury guidelines are used by Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) and the Courts in the personal injury awards of monetary damages in successful personal injury claims.

What is the aim of the Guidelines?

The financial limits for the Irish Courts in personal injury matters are:

• Up to €15,000 District Court,
• €15,000 to €60,000 Circuit Court
• Greater than €60,000 High Court.

The Guidelines have dramatically reduced the value of General Damages, meaning that only the most serious type of injury attract General Damages in excess of €60,000 and are litigated in the High Court.

Compensating a claimant for pain and suffering is not a precise science. The judge has to equate the Claimant’s pain and suffering to a monetary value, considering each case’s specifics.

Without guidelines, this could lead to judges awarding widely varying compensations for relatively similar injuries.

These guidelines aimed to achieve greater consistency in awards, more settlements and less litigation in the courts.

Multiple injuries?

What if a Claimant suffers more than one injury, falling into several brackets within the Guidelines?

The assessment of damages in multiple injury cases can be particularly difficult because each injury is valued separately in the Judicial Guidelines.

The Courts have dealt with this issue in a series of cases and the Court of Appeal recently considered the approach to quantifying multiple injuries damages cases under the Guidelines.

The Court summarised that under the Guidelines, Judges should ask the parties to identify the “dominant” injury and the corresponding relevant damages set out in the Guidelines.

In cases of multiple injuries, the Judge should identify the bracket that best resembles the “most significant” injury, which should then be valued and uplifted to reflect the other injuries.

This means that once the judge values the most significant injury, they will uplift that value for all the additional pain and suffering arising from less severe injuries.

The judge’s task will be to ensure that the overall award for compensation for multiple injuries is proportionate and fair, considering the severity of other injuries that attract an equivalent award of damages under the Guidelines.

Pre-existing conditions?

What if the Claimant has a pre-existing condition aggravated by an injury for which the Court is assessing compensation?

In that case, the judge should only consider how much the condition had worsened. The judge should also consider how long the Claimant has suffered from the additional pain caused by the injury.

Injuries that do not fall within the identified categories within the guidelines.

What if a Court faces an injury not explicitly outlined in the Guidelines?

In that case, the judge will try to find an equally severe injury in the Guidelines and value the injury suffered by the Claimant according to that equally severe injury. Most importantly, the judge must ensure the award is fair and proportionate within the compensation scheme provided in the Guidelines.

All awards made for injuries not explicitly covered by these Guidelines will be subject to review within three years.

Below are two comparisons of awards in the new Personal Injuries Guidelines with awards under the previous method, the Book of Quantum:

To see the complete list of Guidelines, CLICK HERE.

For further advice or if you wish to discuss any other legal area please
contact reception@lynchsolicitors.ie or telephone 052-6124344.

The material contained in this blog is provided for general information purposes only and does
not amount to legal or other professional advice.

While every care has been taken in the
preparation of the information, we advise you to seek specific advice from us about any legal decision or course of action.

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