33% of injury awards rejected

AN increasing number of awards offered by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) are being rejected, according to a top civil lawyer.

Frances Twomey said the rate of awards refused is 33% — and rising.

Ms Twomey also challenges claims by the PIAB that cases are completed within the statutory period of 9 months.

Ms Twomey, whose Limerick-based firm has been involved in major compensation claims, accused the PIAB of media hype regarding the level of its success.

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

Since it was set up under the PIAB Act 2003, the board effected total savings of €9 million from 3,200 cases it assessed.

Ms Twomey said yesterday: “The fast and efficient service promised by the Tánaiste Mary Harney who introduced the Act when Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment has already grown into a civil service bureaucracy.”

She said claims by the PIAB that cases are completed within 9 months were also misleading.

She said: “It takes on average one month to acknowledge a claim, three months for the respondent to decide it will consent or not, 9 months to assess, a further month for the applicant/respondent to decide whether or not to accept or reject the award and another month to issue a letter of release. Total: 15 months.”

Ms Twomey said the number of claimants rejecting awards by the PIAB was also on the increase and running at approximately 33%, and rising.

She said: “In a very recent case a woman of 80 was awarded €14,000 by the PIAB. She rejected it on legal advice and went to the courts. The insurance company then filed a full defence, alleging fraud. The judge found not only had the woman suffered a genuine injury and was not guilty of any fraud, he also made a positive finding of fact that she was a very truthful plaintiff and awarded her €40,000.”

Ms Twomey said that people dealing with the PIAB never meet with the official assessing their claim.

A spokesman for the PIAB said solicitors are involved in nearly all cases where the claimant turns down an award.

He said: “We are finding in some cases where they have refused an award, the claimant settles for the same amount a short time later and often the claimant will look for the solicitor’s costs in addition to the award. We see this as an expected test to the system.”

He said that the average time to settle the 3,200 cases handled so far is 6.7 months, from getting the claimants consent to making an award. He said some cases go beyond 9 months due to delays in getting medical information.