The Gazette 1991

GAZETTE

JULY/AUGUST 1991

practical application of the law and to present useful conclusions to the practitioner and judiciary. What better source of insight, not only into ongoing levels of damages in personal injury cases, but also into the minds of our learned judges, who are in such cases called upon to sum up and analyse evidence and law and to present a coherent judgment immediately following a hearing. Hopefully, the presence of the DCR stenographer in court will not discourage the delivery of the immediate 'ex tempore' judgment in the less complicated case; but will, at the same time, ensure, where necessary, a constant judicial awareness of the need for, and the usefulness of, clarity of analysis and thought. *The DCR series of High Court Personal Injury Judgments will be available (in ring-binder form) three times a year for Michaelmas, Hilary & Easter (combined) and Trinity Terms, at £60.00 per term, from Doyle Court Reporters, 2 Arran Quay, Dublin 7. Telephone 722833 / 862097. The 2-part volume for Michaelmas 1990 and the single volume for Hilary & Easter 1991 are already available. ROBERT PIERSE LAW SOCIETY TIES Colours available

The DCR personal injury judgements series*

One of the encouraging features of practising law in Ireland at present is the amount of new legal material that is becoming available, whether in the form of books, reports, articles or data bases. For the litigation lawyer, what must be particularly welcomed is the commencement of a new series (referred to herein as "the DCR series") of judgements in High Court personal injury actions (including cases involving liability and assessment, assessment only, and where the plaintiff's claim has been dismissed) published by Doyle Court Reporters, Dublin. So far published are a 2-volume set of no less than 60 such judgments delivered (both in Dublin and on circuit) during the Michaelmas Term 1990 and a further set of 55 such judgments (in one volume) for the Hilary & Easter Terms 1991. About to be published shortly will be a similar volume for the Trinity Term 1991. Each of these High Court judgments is presented in the form as recorded by the DCR steno- grapher concerned. Most of the judgments would have been deliver- ed 'ex tempore', or nearly 'ex tempore', at the conclusion of each hearing, as opposed to being reserved judgments. This had the advantage of speed of publication, but, in certain instances, the dis- advantage of lack of the clarity in the presentation of the facts and of the judicial determination that one ex- pects and usually gets in a reserved judgment. In the opinion of this writer, the real value of the new DCR series will be to reflect, term by term, the developing judicial approach to High Court personal injury claims, now that (since 1988) these are in the hands of a judge sitting alone without a jury. At the time of the change to judge-alone sittings, the conventional wisdom was that this would in time make more pre- dictable the levels of damages for different types of injury. Whether this had been, or will become the case, still remains to be seen. Three years on, this writer tends to the belief that the level of damages in 226

any particular case, be it perceived to be high or low, to a considerable extent depends on who is the presiding judge. However, more empirically, the regular practitioner in this area might agree that: (a) more High Court personal injuries actions are being dismissed than were with- drawn from juries in the pre-1988 period; (b) the levels of damages awarded for the less serious categories of injuries have gone down; (c) the levels of damages award- ed for the more serious categories of injuries have remained at what insurers would still regard as a high level. In relation to (c), this writer does not regard either the perceived current levels of damages in serious cases as being too high. After thirty years in the litigation arena, this writer remains firmly of the view that those who suffer serious injuries, particularly with ongoing sequelae, physical and psycho- logical, do require, and should receive, substantial damages; combined, may it be added, with subsequent sound investment advice which their solicitors should ensure they get. A 'ten-year-on' review of seriously injured plaintiffs, who received what at the time might have been perceived to be very high damages, would likely show that most were now very badly off. If, as is to be hoped, the DCR series becomes a permanent institution, the review of damages levels, decade by decade, as well as term by term, will assist such reviews and give practical evidence of the ravages of inflation. Apart from the practising liti- gation lawyer, the DCR series will be of considerable value to the High Court judges themselves in their own personal search for fairness and consistency in the difficult task of assessing damages. Finally, one must not forget the value of the DCR series to the academic lawyer who has (argu- ably) more time to take an overall view of what happens in the

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