Amount paid out in personal injury claims drops by €29m

There was a drop of more than €29m in the total amount paid out in personal injury awards last year, a reduction of 14%.

The Courts Service Annual Report for 2018 shows that the biggest falls were in the High Court, which has unlimited power to award damages, with awards decreasing by 19%.

Some of this was driven by a reduction in medical negligence awards, which fell by over €7m or by 7.5%.

The reduction in awards in the High Court went against the trend in the two lower courts, the Circuit Court and the District Court, where the total amount awarded increased by 19% and 30% respectively.

The Circuit Court can make awards of up to €60,000, while the District Court can hand down awards of up to €15,000.

The annual report shows that the total number of personal injury applications lodged to the three courts fell slightly, from 22,417 in 2017 to 22,049 in 2018.

A breakdown of the amounts paid show:

• The total amount of awards across the three courts fell from €206,509,442 in 2017 to €177,068,972 in 2018 (down €29.4m)
• High Court total awards decreased from €183,141,689 in 2017 to €148,935,686 (down €34.2m)
• The highest individual award in the High Court was €15.5m in 2018 (€15m in 2017)
• Circuit Court total awards increased from €19,874,648 in 2017 to €23,596,553 in 2018 (up €3.7m)
• The highest award was €211,523 in 2018 (€78,000 in 2017)
• District Court total awards increased from €3,493,105 in 2017 to €4,536,733 in 2018 (up €1m)

Medical negligence cases are dealt with in the High Court. The total amount awarded in those cases fell from €98,804,401 in 2017 to €91,411,853, a reduction of more than €7m (down 7.5%).

Medical negligence cases accounted for about half of all High Court personal injury awards in 2017 and around 60% last year.

The report shows that the average award in medical negligence cases reduced from €1.98m to just over €1m – a drop of 47%.

In other personal injury cases, the average award fell from €457,854 to €351,263 – down 23%.

In other court business, the report shows a significant reduction in cases involving property and debt, with a 52% reduction in possession cases on 2017 and an 82% decrease over the last five years.

There was a 20% fall in possession orders made by the courts.

There was a 16% reduction in bankruptcy applications and a 12.5% fall in cases seeking debt recovery.

Personal insolvency cases dropped by 62%.

The report documents a substantial rise in domestic violence applications, up 16% to 18,672 and a 38% jump in emergency barring orders.

There was a rise of 10.5% in child supervision and care order applications.

Elsewhere, the report shows a 75% hike in asylum cases dealt with and finalised and a 53% increase in European Arrest Warrant cases.

There was a 7.5% increase in criminal cases before the Circuit Court, with 15,022 new offences, compared to 13,974 in 2017.

This included a 17% rise in serious theft and robbery charges and an 8.5% reduction in serious drug cases.

In the District Court, the number of less serious drug cases (mainly possession and street dealing) increased by 15%.

There were 25 murder trials in 2018, resulting in 14 convictions, five acquittals, four hung juries and two cases of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Of the 419 rape trials, there were convictions in 194 cases.