PRESS RELEASE

2nd July 2024

EMBARGOED UNTIL 12:01am, 2nd July 2024

• Majority of legal fees unnecessary and unjustifiable in settling personal injury claims.

The Alliance for Insurance Reform welcomes the publication of the NCID Private Motor and Liability Mid-Year 2 Reports as they provide an important snapshot of the volume of claims, size of awards and breakdown of costs for the first half of 2023 in the context of motor and liability claims. 

The Central Bank report shows no meaningful difference in public liability awards settled through litigation (€23,458) rather than through the Injuries Resolution Board (€23,122), yet legal fees are, on average, 22 times greater (rising from €1,024 to €22,803). 

Tracy Sheridan, owner of Kidspace play centres in Rathfarnham and Rathcoole and Board member of the Alliance said “this shows the effectiveness of the Injuries Resolution Board in resolving claims and providing fair awards. In most cases, the only ones that benefit from settling though the litigation channel are the legal profession. While it is positive to see an increase in claims settled via the Resolution Board, the number of cases being settled via litigation remains stubbornly high (72%). It is highly unlikely a majority of these claims are contentious and in those instances there is simply no reason not to settle via the Injuries Resolution Board – it is quicker, cheaper and the awards are the same.”

Tracy Sheridan continued “The Government has delivered an exceptional programme of reform to try and deliver reduced premiums for local businesses, sports, arts, community and voluntary organisations, and the benefits of these reforms are – to a significant extent – being hoovered up by the legal profession. The Government needs to get serious about this issue and tackle it once and for all as the majority of legal fees are unnecessary and unjustifiable in settling personal injury claims.”

There are 17% fewer liability claims relative to pre-Covid levels and in the context of this, the delivery of the Government’s insurance reform programme and record-breaking insurer profits of late, it is unconscionable that businesses, sports, arts, community and voluntary organisations are not seeing meaningful reductions in their premiums.

—ENDS—

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: contact@insurancereform.ie or Alliance CEO, Brian Hanley at 086 8620 974.

Notes:

1. The Alliance for Insurance Reform brings together 46 civic and business organisations from across Ireland, representing over 55,000 members, 700,000 employees, 614,000 volunteers and 374,000 students in highlighting the negative impact of persistently high premiums and calling for real reforms that will quickly reduce liability and motor insurance premiums to affordable levels and keep them that way.
2. NCID Data re Average Settled Claim Cost for PL Claims – H1 2023