New Judicial Guidelines were published on Saturday, which are set to control the amount of damages awarded for personal injury claims and hence the cost of insurance.
These new guidelines do not go far enough – they only bring damages for minor, fully-recovered injuries down by 52% and mean that we are still an outlier in Europe. An 80% reduction (compared to the previous Book of Quantum) is required to bring us in line with England and Wales and get insurance costs down to affordable levels. We need your help to call on Government to intervene. Please share the message below (feel free to adjust but keep the part in bold) this week with all of your local TDs by text, email or verbally. You can find your local TD at www.whoismytd.com
Message Template:
Dear xxxxx,
The cost and availability of insurance remains an existential issue for us and for Irish society in general. We will not be in a position to recover from Covid-19 unless insurance is sorted. At the heart of the issue is the level of damages awarded in Ireland for minor, fully-recovered injuries which must be reduced by 80% just to bring them in line with international norms.
The Judicial Council had the opportunity to do so in their newly-adopted personal injuries guidelines, but they did not. Now it is up to Government to intervene. The Law Reform Commission has made it clear that direct intervention by the legislature to cap damages will be entirely constitutional subject to certain safeguards.
I ask you to convey to Government the need to intervene as a matter of absolute urgency for the sake of the common good; and reduce damages for minor injuries by 80%.
Please keep me updated on all progress you make on this issue.
Kind regards,
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