Sabrina Lawlor

The Department recently carried out a consultation on how inflation should be taken into account when the personal injury discount rate (PIDR) is reviewed.

In a three-page submission, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) called for Northern Ireland to adopt an approach in line with that in England and Wales.

Sabrina Lawlor, APIL representative for Northern Ireland, said: “People with the most severe and life-changing injuries, who need specialist disability aids such as prosthetic limbs, might not have enough compensation to meet their needs due to the way damages are calculated here.

“In most cases, someone with life-changing injuries will receive a significant lump sum settlement from the insurer of the party responsible for the harm they have suffered, such as a motorist, or employer. Then it is down to the injured person to make sure that that money lasts and meets their needs for as long as they require it, which is often the rest of their lives.

“The formula used for determining the levels of compensation, also known as damages, that injured victims receive needs to be more flexible, to reflect how inflation will affect their compensation over the long term.

“Disability aids are much more sensitive to the pressures and volatility of inflation than food and clothes, for example. The cost of a prosthetic limb has almost tripled in the last 20 years alone and the rules used by the courts to work out damages need to reflect this as accurately as possible.

“If people do not receive the correct level of damages, they are forced to turn to the state for money to cover their needs. It’s imperative that when people suffer serious, or life-changing, injuries caused by the negligence of others that they receive full and fair compensation so they can get their lives back on track.

“Allowing more flexibility would also bring Northern Ireland in line with how compensation is calculated in England and Wales.”