6, Bindon Street, Ennis, Co. Clare

PERSONAL INJURIES ASSESSMENTS BOARD

 

The Personal Injuries Assessments Board (“PIAB”) was set up with the intention of bringing down the cost of processing compensation claims and dealing with them more quickly than the Courts. It does not hold any oral hearings and assesses compensation based solely on medical reports. Almost all personal injury claims are now dealt with initially by PIAB and it is only when either the claimant or the third party’s insurers reject the PIAB assessment that Court proceedings may be issued. An exception to this rule is in medical negligence cases which are dealt with exclusively by the Courts.

 

Bringing a claim for compensation to PIAB involves submitting a medical report setting out details of the injury sustained together with an application form giving an outline description of the accident, the expenses incurred by the injured party and other background information. Prior to submitting this application a letter must be sent to the person whom it is alleged is responsible for the injury within two months of the date of the accident unless there are good reasons why this cannot be done. 

 

PIAB have up to fifteen months from the date on which the party being held responsible by the claimant consents to the assessment of compensation by PIAB. Either party may reject the award made by PIAB and if this occurs a form of authorisation will be issued by PIAB which enables the injured party to issue Court proceedings. In a significant number of cases to date PIAB have declined to assess cases usually on the basis that they are either too complex or where they believe that it will not be possible to assess compensation within the statutory time frame. 

 

The law and procedures governing the operation of PIAB are continually changing because of a series of legal challenges which have been brought in relation to the stance adopted by PIAB on various operational aspects of the system. Further challenges are likely and it is essential to have proper legal advice at all stages of the process. In particular, it is important to be advised on the amount of the compensation awarded by PIAB because of the skill and complexity involved in analysing and assessing such compensation.  

 

Overall, PIAB has produced very mixed results. Where the claimant decides not to accept its award of compensation, which is quite common, it effectively means that a period of up to two years has been wasted because the claimant is then obliged to turn around and start from scratch by issuing Court proceedings.