Number of personal injury claims lodged with courts last year fell by 43% 

Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell said significant changes were evident in the area of personal injuries.

The number of new personal injury cases coming before the courts dropped again last year, with the total amount awarded also reduced from District Court to High Court level.

But the level of licensing applications increased by 311% as the country got back on its feet after the pandemic, according to the latest report from the Courts Service.

A total of 44,255 licensing applications were made mainly in the District Court last year compared to 10,764 the year before.

The Courts Service annual report for 2022 published on Thursday shows a 43% decrease in the number of new personal injury claims lodged with the courts last year compared to 2019 and 17% less than in 2021. This comes after the new judicial guidelines were implemented which saw lower awards introduced.

Last year, a total of 12,459 such cases claiming damages for personal injuries were filed, down from 21,981 in 2019 and just over 15,000 in 2021.

The total awards made last year were €271m down from over €307m on the previous year. In medical negligence cases, the awards dropped to a total of €179m last year from €203m in 2021.

Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell said significant changes were evident in the area of personal injuries.

He said the number of awards of damages made in the Circuit Court dropped to 57% of the number of awards made in 2019 and the value of those awards was down to 58% of 2019 levels.

“Further to that, the number of new personal injuries actions commenced followed the pattern which emerged in the second half of 2021 and continued to trend downwards following the implementation of the Judicial Council’s Personal Injuries Guidelines.” Mr Justice O’Donnell said.

E-charge sheets

Referring to the Courts Service modernisation programme, he said 95% of all charge sheets are now being processed under the new e-charge sheets project. This means charge sheets and station bail data from the Garda system can be pulled into the Courts Service system. He said this has resulted in a 77% reduction in the time taken to complete such tasks.

There are now, the report said, 120 video technology-enabled courtrooms in the system and the Irish Prison Service accounted for about 68% of the 34,355 videolink calls to courtrooms in 2022.

The report also shows that possession of property applications increased last year with a 73% increase in applications to the Circuit Court where 837 new possession applications were made up from 477 in 2021.

Breach of contract cases also saw a huge increase of 493% to 1,458 new cases last year as a result of a large number of new claims against concrete block suppliers and quarry operators in the middle of last year.

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On the probate front, the report says delays in processing applications both in the Dublin Probate office and the District Probate Registries were a cause of concern given the need to support efforts to increase the supply of residential units. Challenges included an increase in the complexity of estates with more people having properties abroad, and staffing challenges with the retirement of experienced staff after the pandemic, as well as ongoing issues with errors in applications. A special project, it said, got underway this year in an effort to streamline and simplify the probate process.

A total of 4,915 divorces were granted which was an increase of 15% on the previous year. There was also a 15% increase in domestic violence applications coming to the courts last year compared to 2019 with a total of 23,536 applications made last year.

Criminal cases

A total of 377,094 criminal cases came before the courts last year but the report shows a reduction in less serious crime before the District Court, including road traffic offences, drugs offences, and larceny, robbery, and fraud matters from 2019. However, there was an increase in public order assault cases to 47,990 last year up from 46,000 in 2019.

In the Central Criminal Court, which deals with more serious cases such as murder and rape, the number of new cases increased by 25% last year compared to 2019. The Circuit Court issued 13,166 sentences for more serious crime last year: this included 3,507 sentences of imprisonment, 2,058 suspended prison sentences, 630 probation orders, 152 community service orders, 3,602 bonds to keep the peace. There was also a 50% reduction in new cases before the Special Criminal Court down from 1454 in 2021 to 69 in 2022.