The Gazette 1991

GAZETTE

JULY/AUGUST 1991

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

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

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