Claimants challenge 30% of injury assessments

NEARLY one-third of claimants are challenging decisions issued by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, although the compensation awards are acceptable to insurance companies in over 90% of cases.

It has also emerged that the vast majority of people lodging claims with the PIAB for personal injuries are still engaging solicitors, even though the Board was established for the purpose of helping applicants to avoid legal costs.

PIAB chief executive Patricia Byron said yesterday that 30% of all its assessments were being challenged by claimants.

Less than 10% of awards are being disputed by insurers. Ms Byron said she believed that many of PIAB’s decisions were not being accepted because people want to reclaim legal costs.

The PIAB estimates that it provides average cost savings of €8,700 for every compensation award of €20,000.

To date, PIAB has effected total savings of €9m from 3,200 cases for which it has issued assessments.

Under the PIAB Act 2003, all claimants are obliged to apply to the Board to seek compensation for personal injuries unless the matter can be resolved between the parties.

Ms Byron said the PIAB had been able to detect that some “legal firms are not happy with the situation.”

She expressed concern that many claimants still failed to recognise that they could obtain compensation where there was no dispute about liability without needing to hire a solicitor.

“Many members of the public don’t understand that they can go directly to the PIAB themselves by paying a €50 application fee,” said Ms Byron.

“They still feel they need to go to a solicitor.”

However, the PIAB points out that there is no legal dispute in 90% of claims. Most involve awards of less than €40,000.

The Irish Insurance Federation said the establishment of the PIAB had changed the culture of the industry.

“There has been a move towards early settlements by insurance companies. The PIAB set up a new timeframe and it has speeded everything up which has had a ripple effect on insurers who now appear more willing to settle early,” said an IIF spokesperson.

She claimed the existence of the PIAB had created greater certainty, standardisation and transparency for all parties involved in claims, even those settled without recourse to the PIAB. The IIF noted that car insurance premiums had already decreased by 45% since 2003.

One of the country’s biggest insurance groups, Quinn-Direct, reported results earlier this week which showed that only a small number of claims it handled were processed by PIAB.

Quinn-Direct general manager Colin Morgan said just 68 out of over 1,200 cases were settled by the Board.

However, he expressed surprise that 50% of awards by PIAB in cases involving Quinn-Direct had been rejected by claimants.

Ms Byron said the success of PIAB was also evident by the dramatic fall in personal injury claims lodged with the courts last year.