Second and Final Report of the Personal Injuries Commission

The Second and Final Report of the PIC is an amalgamation of the second and third phase of the PIC’s scheduled work. Independent consultants were engaged to carry out the data validation/verification of the data received and work with the PIC on the benchmarking exercise. Their Report forms part of the Second and Final Report that deals in the main with the benchmarking of Irish personal injury award levels and an examination of alternative compensation and resolution models in other jurisdictions. The Report also includes an update on the implementation of recommendations from the PIC’s First Report.

The establishment of the Personal Injuries Commission (PIC) was one of the key recommendations from the Cost of Insurance Working Group Report on the Cost of Motor Insurance that was approved by Government and published in January 2017.

The Cost of Insurance Working Group (CIWG) recommended that a Personal Injuries Commission be established to examine a number of areas including to;

- assess systems for handling personal injury claims particularly soft tissue (‘whiplash’) claims, focussing on causes, frequency, diagnosis, treatment and appropriate compensation level;

- carry out a high-level benchmarking exercise of international awards for personal injury claims with domestic ones as referred to in the Book of Quantum and; 

- analyse and report on alternative compensation and resolution models internationally focussing on common law systems while taking account of social welfare, healthcare and related factors associated with each jurisdiction.

The terms of reference for the PIC are set out in the CIWG Report and the work was phased over an eighteen-month period.

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