Draft Amended Personal Injuries Guidelines Submitted to the Minister for Justice

Further to a meeting of the Judicial Council on 31 January 2025, the draft amendments to the Personal Injuries Guidelines, (Draft Amended Guidelines) have been submitted to the Minister for Justice pursuant to Section 7 (2B) of the Judicial Council Act 2019 (Act).

Proposed Changes

Quantum of Awards

In accordance with the provisions of the Act, the Judicial Council Committee must review the Personal Injury Guidelines (Guidelines) within 3 years of their introduction. The Draft Amended Guidelines, as published on 11 December 2024, propose to increase awards at an overall rate of 16.7% to reflect what was termed “significant global and national inflation” which had occurred over the previous three years since the Guidelines were first introduced.

By way of illustration, a moderate neck injury under the current Guidelines would attract an award of €12,000 - €23,000, while this would increase to €14,000 - €26,800 under the Draft Amended Guidelines. Similarly, under the current Guidelines, the range of award provided for a moderate shoulder injury is €18,000 - €35,000 while it is €21,000 - €40,800 under the Draft Amended Guidelines.

Multiply Injury Awards

The Draft Amended Guidelines also seek to apply principles adopted by the Superior Courts in respect of how the assessment of damages in multiple injuries cases should be approached. They state that the overriding consideration for the judge in all cases is proportionality and to arrive at a just result, the judge must step back from the categories in order to assess the overall impact of all the injuries on the claimant and place them on the scale in a way that is proportionate. In the majority of cases, achieving proportionality is likely to involve the application of a global discount to the relevant categories. The extent of the discount will vary according to the extent of the overlap of the injuries.

Extension of Guidelines

The Judicial Council Committee concluded that no issues have been brought to their attention which would require the addition of further categories of injuries to be included within the Draft Amended Guidelines. A court when dealing with a novel or infrequent injury should seek to value the injury by reference to the damages allowed for other equally significant injuries which do appear within the Guidelines.

Next Steps

The Supreme Court last year in Delaney v. The Personal Injuries Board & Ors [2024] IESC 10, held that the power given to the Judicial Council to make guidelines pursuant to section 7(2)g of the Act was unconstitutional.  It is now necessary for any changes, such as those now proposed, to be brought before and approved by both houses of the Oireachtas before they become binding law, as detailed in Section 14 of Courts, Civil Law, Criminal Law, and Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024 (2024 Act). As noted above, the Draft Amended Guidelines have now been submitted to the Minister for Justice and under the terms of the 2024 Act. the Minister is required to put the proposals to the Oireachtas as soon as practicable.

Conclusion

While a further step in the process of obtaining approval of the Draft Amended Guidelines has now been taken with this submission to the Minster for Justice, a timeframe for approval by the Oireachtas is difficult to predict with a number of variables impacting possible ratification. The proposed increases are sizable and while they will not restore levels to the Book of Quantum awards, the effect, along with increased special damages in recent years, points to rising claim costs in the future.