- December 13, 2024
- Posted by: Colm Hurley
- Category: News
The committee responsible for reviewing personal injury guidelines within the Judicial Council has prepared a draft update to the existing guidelines, which have been in effect since 2021. This marks the first proposed revision of the guidelines since their implementation. The draft update will go before the full Judicial Council in January. The changes will thereafter go before the Oireachtas for final approval. In our latest article, Barry Kelleher, Senior Associate CKT reviews the update.
Should the proposed changes be accepted, the maximum compensation for general damages in cases involving the most severe and life-altering injuries would increase from €550,000 to €642,000. The draft guidelines provide for a 16.7% increase in awards of damages across all categories of injuries.
In conducting its evaluation, the Committee focused on two key aspects. Firstly, it considered the substantial global and national inflation that has taken place in the three years since the 1st Edition was implemented. Secondly, it considered recent jurisprudence from the Superior Courts regarding the appropriate methodology for assessing damages in cases involving multiple injuries.
Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP)
As part of the review the Committee recommends a modification of the values attributable to injuries in line with inflation as represented by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). HICP tracks the average price changes of a fixed basket of consumer goods and services over time.
Unlike Ireland’s national Consumer Price Index (CPI), the HICP excludes certain items like mortgage interest payments and includes only the service charges for insurance premiums. The Committee considered the use of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) but on receipt of economic advice determined that HICP was more appropriate. As a result of this the committee is recommending an uplift on the value of all injuries scheduled in the Personal Injury Guidelines of 16.7%.
Multiple Injuries
The review also provides further guidance in respect of Multiple Injuries, which have proved difficult to value in conjunction with the current guidelines. The draft suggests that the overriding consideration for a judge is proportionality. It is recommended that a Judge must;
“step back from the categories in order to assess the overall impact of all the injuries on the claimant, and place them on the scale in a way that is proportionate. In the majority of cases, achieving proportionality is likely to involve the application of a global discount to the relevant categories.”
The revised approach appears to shift from the previously proposed ‘uplift’ method towards a more comprehensive cumulative strategy, culminating in the application of a ‘discount’ at the final stage. This will be an interesting point to note and moves away from previous judgements wherein uplifts in damages could range from 10-50% depending the case.
Conclusion
This is the first change in the Guidelines and if approved, will result in a significant increase in damages . If the draft is approved, it would seem that insurers might expect that the Guidelines would continue to be reviewed on a 3-year basis in line with HICP. This will assist insurers and underwriters in valuing and predicting future personal injury awards.