The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

N E WiS

MWH DECEMBER 1993

Society's Submission rejects proposal to cap injuries awards

On^24 September, 1993, the Law Society made a submission to Government arguingagainst the proposal by the Minister of State for Commerceand Technologyto limit the amount that_could be paid in compensation for personal injuries. The submission is summarised below: Part I - Society's recommendations to reduced insurance costs • The Society's submission makes it clear that the solicitors' profession supports the view that there is a need to address the high cost of insurance, and especially motor insurance, in this country. The only argument is with the Minister's approach which is incorrectly focused on awards for pain and suffering rather than examining the reason for the high level of claims and taking action to reduce accident levels. Thus, the Society's submission makes a number of suggestions and endorses proposals which have been made in the past that are aimed at reducing the cost of insurance but upon which the Government has failed to act \ • A Coopers & Lybrand report points out that, although accident levels | here are lower than the UK, there j are two and a half times the number j of fatalities in Ireland and 1.25 times the number of serious injuries j on the roads in Ireland compared to 1 the UK. The principal reason for ! this is, in the Society's view, the | poor condition of Irish roads and inadequate enforcement of road traffic regulations. (Section 5) (Section I)

far as the Society is aware, the incidence of uninsured driving in this country has not abated. This problem cannot be tackled seriously unless additional resources are devoted to enforcement and the penalties for uninsured driving are substantially increased. (Section 6) \ • A number of the recommendations of the MacLiam Report remain to be implemented including measures to improve the efficiency of the motor insurance industry itself. A recent publication suggested that for every £100 paid in premiums almost £50 is spent by insurance companies on administration. That J j i publication also suggested that motor insurance in Ireland has produced a profit every year except one from 1979 to 1989 and that the average cost of insurance-settled claims in Ireland was less than £2,500 per claim. (Section 6) • Much greater attention should be paid to road safety, particularly through the elimination of accident ! blackspots (for example, the bridge | at Ballymascanlon, Co. Louth | which tragically has claimed eight ; lives in recent years) and that specific measures should be taken | to improve the standard of driving ! and the repair and maintenance of j vehicles. The MacLiam Report (eleven years ago) recommended i |

Commission. (Section 7)

• The Society also urges that greater attention should be paid to safety in the workplace so as to reduce the high incidence of injuries caused to people at their place of employment. Responsibility for this lies principally on employers. (Section 8) • The administration of the courts also needs to be improved so as to reduce delays in the hearing of cases and to reduce costs. The Society has recently made a major submission to the Minister for Justice on this matter. (Section 6) • The Minister appears to believe that awards for pain and suffering in Ireland are substantially out of line with the Ed average based on the findings of a report by Davies Arnold Cooper. But the Society's submission shows that the report is I unreliable, being a subjective assessment of the compensation levels that would be payable in two atypical hypothetical situations; it does not purport to be an examination of actual awards made in real cases in the EC countries surveyed; and, indeed, the report itself makes it clear that the figures are more in the nature of guesswork than scientific data. Furthermore, a close examination of the survey shows that it is not certain that like is being compared with like in the European countries surveyed since they have different legal systems, different methods of assessing loss and defining pain and suffering and, j in some cases, different regimes for j treating injuries caused by car accidents. (Section 2) • The Society questions the Minister's view that Irish levels of damages 397 Part II - Summary of the Society's criticism of the Minister's proposal

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the annual testing of private cars which are more than three years

old. (Section 6)

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| • The Society also supports a j

recommendation in the MacLiam Report that the possibility of introducing a form of structured settlements, under which compensation could, in certain circumstances, be paid by means of an annual annuity instead of being paid in one large lump sum, should be considered. This has now been recommended by the Law Reform

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| • The MacLiam Report of 1982 |

showed that there was evidence to suggest there was a higher level of uninsured driving in this country than other European countries. As

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