Lawyers of families with catastrophic injuries blamed for ‘forcing court cases’

The State Claims Agency has claimed that lawyers acting for families who have suffered catastrophic medical injuries are to blame for forcing high-profile court cases because their initial compensation “demands” are “significantly overstated”.

The State body made the claim to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, saying lawyers regularly seek three times as much money as they are willing to settle for and that the agency is obliged to protect taxpayers’ interests.

In a seven-page letter sent to the PAC in recent days and published by the committee yesterday, the SCA’s director Ciaran Breen said all officials at the agency fully understand how traumatic a court hearing can be.