PI guidelines ‘at risk’ over failure to update
Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell has warned that a failure to update the Personal Injuries Guidelines, introduced in 2021, will put the guidelines system itself at risk.
He was speaking at a ceremony to mark the opening of the new legal year at the Four Courts in Dublin today (6 October).
Earlier this year, the Judicial Council approved a proposal for an overall increase of 16.7% in damages to be awarded for personal injuries, after a required three-year review.
The chief justice noted, however, that it appeared that the revised guidelines would not to be put before the Oireachtas, which must approve them for the new guidelines to have statutory effect.
Media campaign
“As everybody here knows, there was a short media campaign that involved what I would regard as some misplaced criticism of the judiciary,” he told attendees, who included the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan.
“Even someone who is concerned about awards, and/or who disagrees with the level of recommended awards, whether generally or by reference to specific categories of injury, should not be opposed to the amendment of the guidelines.
“Looking at this purely from a practical and pragmatic point of view, it is simply counter-productive to seek to prevent the revision of guidelines in this system,” Chief Justice O’Donnell stated.
“If the Injuries Resolution Board and courts are increasingly invited to depart from the guidelines and make higher awards reflecting the effect of inflation, the guidelines will inevitably begin to fray,” he added.
“Given the benefits of the guidelines in terms of certainty and predictability, it is not easy to understand why that would be allowed to occur,” he stated.
Supreme Court broadcasts
In his speech, the chief justice also warned that an increase in judicial numbers had put “a significant strain” on court buildings, adding that the momentum of modernisation in the system had to be maintained.
He praised the work of the Judicial Appointments Commission, which began operating this year, saying that it had made “a very good start” with what he described as “a skeleton administrative staff” of only three persons.
The chief justice added, however, that this system was not sustainable and that additional staff were needed to address the anticipated pipeline of appointments.
He also announced that, in a pilot project starting on Thursday, the proceedings in the Supreme Court would be recorded and broadcast on the Supreme Court website.
Technical constraints mean that the proceedings cannot be streamed live, so they will be made available on the following day.
Judicial-review ‘weaknesses’
Minister O’Callaghan, who also spoke at the event, told attendees that a forthcoming draft Civil Reform Bill would codify the existing law on judicial review, placing it on a statutory basis.
“The agendas of litigation enthusiasts who seek to stop important infrastructural developments must be balanced against the interests of the broader community and the common good,” the minister said.
He added that he was confident that the proposed bill would “remove weaknesses” in the current judicial-review regime, eliminate impediments to progress, and deliver reform for the public benefit.
He added that changes in the system of discovery in the bill should result in a significant impact on costs and delays and would improve access to justice.
“We cannot stand idly by whilst discovery makes access to the courts the preserve only of well-resourced or institutional litigants,” the minister stated.