Cabinet approves bill to frustrate personal injuries claimants attempting to avoid PIAB

Heather Humphreys

Claimants, especially those making false or exaggerated claims, often prefer for their cases to be heard in court as awards there are frequently higher and legal costs are covered.

The PIAB was established as the independent State body for assessing injury compensation and generally does not cover legal fees.

All personal injury claims, except medical negligence ones, must go through PIAB initially and a case can only proceed to court if a PIAB award is rejected by either side or if PIAB is not provided with medical reports or information on loss of earnings.

Now Business Minister Heather Humphreys has been given Cabinet approval for the Personal Injuries Assessment (Amendment) Bill, which will give the PIAB discretion to make a no award assessment where a claimant fails to appear at a medical or to furnish PIAB with details of special damages or loss of earnings.

In addition, the bill will make it cheaper to make a claim to the PIAB electronically.

Where a claimant fails to cooperate with PIAB, a judge will require to be notified if the claim ends up in court. The judge will have the power to throw the case out.

Ms Humphreys said: “This is an important bill as PIAB facilitates the objective assessment of damages at a much lower delivery cost and in a far shorter timeframe than through litigation.”

She added that the Government’s Cost of Insurance Working Group report, published in 2017, detailed that the delivery costs for cases settled outside of PIAB is greater than 40 per cent of compensation awards.

“Therefore, encouraging more claimants to finalise their cases through the PIAB model rather than resorting to litigation should lead to cost savings in the claims environment,” Ms Humphreys said.