The Gazette 1994

GAZETTE

D I

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1994

Deba te on "Capp i ng" Cont inues

The proposal to introduce

legislation which would limit the

amount that could be paid in

compensation for pain and suffering

in personal injury awards continued

to receive attention in the media

during the month of December and

in the New Year.

The

Irish Times

and the

Irish

Independent

of 2 December 1993,

reported on replies by the Minister for

Enterprise and Employment,

Ruairi

Quinn,

to Dail questions, in which the

Minister said that personal injury

compensation represented 67% of the

cost of motor insurance claims in

1991. The Minister said he was

considering a proposal to allow him to

have a function in the cost of pain and

suffering compensation in personal

injury claims. He was not suggesting,

he said, that there should not be

recourse to the Courts for those

personal injury claims which could

not be resolved between the parties

involved but he believed that the

reduction of the cost of pain and

suffering compensation required an

initiative by the legislature.

A debate in the Seanad on a

Progressive Democrats Private

Member's motion on the high level of

insurance costs was reported in the

Irish Times

of 2 December 1993. The

Minister of State for Commerce and

Technology,

Seamus Brennan,

said

the situation was critical and it was

now up to Irish society to decide what

it wanted to do. Did it want Irish

business to continue paying out £400

million or so a year? If so, then the

Irish public would have to realise that

the cost of insurance claims would

have to be borne by individuals.

Remarks by the President of the High

Court, Mr. Justice

Liam Hamilton,

which he stated that it was not

the

size of court awards

in personal

injury cases that was creating a

problem but the

number of claims,

were reported in the

Irish Independent

of 4 December 1993 and the

Clare

Champion

of 10 December 1993. The

Judge said that in his view no useful

purpose would be served by capping

damages. While at times damages

might seem to be excessive, he had

found that in some cases money

regarded as sufficient to ensure care

for the rest of a severely injured

person's life had later been found to

be inadequate because of the high cost

of care and hospital treatment.

Proposals to cap insurance awards

will be put to the Cabinet early in

February, according to an article in

the

Irish Independent

of 31 December

1993. The article said that Seamus

Brennan, who had already circulated

one memorandum on his

'controversial plan', had revised his

proposals and these would be

discussed at a Cabinet meeting in

February.

All the national daily newspapers of 7

January 1994, reported that the Law

Society was asking the general public

to lobby TDs against the proposal.

The papers reported that the Society

has published a leaflet setting out the

arguments against the proposal and

that copies had been sent to solicitors

throughout the country for distribution

to their clients.

Dublin Corporation - Injury Claims

The

Irish Independent

of 25/27

December 1993, reported that a

"leading personal injuries solicitor"

Gerard Doherty,

said the Corporation

was 'wasting' £800,000 in costs for

every £1 million awarded against

them in negligence cases. Mr Doherty

pointed out that in some cases the

costs awarded against the Corporation

had been 104% of the actual

settlements to claimants. "The costs

should only be a fraction of this

amount. They should only run at 10%

- 12% of the cases." He said that the

high costs were as a result of the

difficult and expensive procedures

that the Corporation insisted on going

through in cases where its liability

was manifest.

Solicitors Bill

The Minister of State at the

Department of Justice,

Willie O'Dea,

said that the new Solicitors Bill,

which would tackle 'shoddy' work

and overcharging by solicitors, would

be introduced early in the New Year

and that he was considering extending

the legislation on cover barristers. Mr.

O'Dea was interviewed on the

Morning Ireland

programme on

Monday 13 December and his views

were also reported in the

Irish

Independent

and the

Evening Herald

of that day. He said that the Bill

would give the Law Society extensive

new powers to deal with

overcharging, "cutting corners",

shoddy work and unnecessary delays.

The Minister said that the solicitors'

profession itself would have to

recognise that there was an over

supply of solicitors and that 5,000

were too many for a country the size

of Ireland. He said that he was in

favour, in principle, of a cap on the

amount of compensation that would

be paid on any one claim on the

Society's Compensation Fund but that

he was trying to balance the Society's

demand for a cap against the need to

protect the public.

Education and Admissions Policy

Brian Dowling,

political reporter,

Irish Independent,

reported on 4

January 1994, that a provision which

would allow the Law Society to limit

access to the solicitors' profession by

setting a competitive entrance

examination had been rejected by the

Government, and instead the Minister

for Justice would be reviewing all

options taking into account the

manner in which other professions,