The Injuries Board is a State body which was established by the enactment of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003. Its purpose is to assess all claims of personal (excluding medical negligence) in Ireland. All personal injury claims therefore have to go through the process and it is far from simple. Initially a form A and a medical report must be first submitted together with an administration fee of €45.00.

When the application is received the injuries board will write to the party responsible for the personal injury giving them 90 days to consent to the assessment process or not. If the respondents do not consent to the assessment process then the matter can proceed to court. If the respondents accept the assessment process the matter will proceed to assessment and the Injuries board have a period of 9 months to complete the assessment.

During the assessment process the claimants ( injured party ) injury will be assessed by an independent medical assessor chosen by the injuries board. A copy of this 2nd report will be made available to the claimant.

At the end of this process the injuries board will make an assessment of what they believe the personal injury claim is worth and this assessment will be based on the medical report that their physician has carried out. It will be open to both the claimant and the respondent to either reject or accept the assessment of the injuries board.

If the assessment is rejected by either party or the respondent does not consent to the assessment process an authorisation will issue from the Injuries Board allowing the claimant to proceed to issue court proceedings.

The Injuries Board process is far from straight forward and briefing a solicitor to move the application for you has certain advantages, these include :

• Filling out the form A requires the correct legal entity or person to be placed on the form issuing court proceedings can be problematic if this is incorrect
• Time limits apply regarding these matters and the Injuries Board cannot advise you regarding these
• The assessment may not be in your favour and you will not be able to judge if it is fair
• As an unrepresented plaintiff with no experience you will be in a weaker negotiating position against insurance companies who will be very knowledgable of the process