The Personal Injuries Assessment Board says it has delivered the same level of compensation to claimants, three times faster and four times cheaper than if they had gone to court.
At the launch of the Board's 2004 annual report, it was revealed that three out of four people accept awards proposed by it. A quarter, however, reject the proposed awards and may decide to settle their cases in court.
Since it was established in April of last year, the PIAB has awarded €2.7m in compensation to claimants. The annual report says that 13,000 applications had been received from victims of accidents, the majority of which were received this year.
5,000 of these claims have either been settled up-front between parties following PIAB's intervention, or claim papers are being submitted by the claimant. The remaining 8,000 are at various stages of the nine month assessment process.
The chairperson of the Board, Dorothea Dowling, says the PIAB presented a win-win situation for the genuine victims of accidents, and also for consumers, as insurance costs have fallen by 24% over the last two years.
The PIAB's CEO Patricia Byron said that the body has met all of its targets on time and under budget. These targets include setting up the organisation, recruiting management and staff, building new infrastructure, systems and processes, appointing a Service Centre Provider, publishing a Book of Quantum and opening its doors to new claimants.
Commenting that the claims environment has changed significantly, Ms Byron said that personal injury cases in the High Court had moved from 11,245 in 2003 and 15,293 in 2004 to 297 in 2005 so far this year.
She said that PIAB has not only cut the cost and time to deliver the same compensation levels to accident victims, but the new system has had a very positive impact by freeing up the courts. 'This is good for society at large and all the more significant when it is noted that the new body will be self financing by the end of the year, and will not be a tax burden on the taxpayer,' she added.
The PIAB was set up to reduce the costs associated with delivering personal injury compensation. These costs contributed significantly to spiralling insurance premiums here and claimants usually had to wait three to four years for their claims to be settled.
