Personal injuries board+on going injuries???

mary p

Hi
I was involved in an accident,the other party admitted liability.the insurance company offered a small amount after i contacted the injuries board.
My injuries are still on going 20months after the accident,still on a lot of medication+phyiso.There is no sign of my back getting better.

Will the injuries board not access my claim and let it go to the high courts because my injuries are on-going???





Thanks

RGS

talk to your solicitor--you are paying for his advise.
The board will get their own medics involved and make an assessment based on the latest medical report.

kennM

RGS wrote: »

talk to your solicitor--you are paying for his advise.
The board will get their own medics involved and make an assessment based on the latest medical report.

Would agree with rgs, no hard or fast rule to indicate if piab will or wont assess

mary p

Hi
My solicitor said they may or may not access the case.
i was just asking if anyone on his forum had dealt with the pib and had on going injuries when they went to see the doctors for the pib???

kennM

would

mary p wrote: »

Hi
My solicitor said they may or may not access the case.
i was just asking if anyone on his forum had dealt with the pib and had on going injuries when they went to see the doctors for the pib???

Will prob be in the same boat as you in a couple of months so would be interested in hearing how you get on. Ongoing injuries also.

I think if there is uncertanty over long term prognosis then there is a chance it will go to court.

Corruptable

All personal injury cases are required to go through the Injuries Board, even if the plaintiff and/or their solicitor knows that PIAB can't possibly offer a proper assessment of damages that would fit the injury.

PIAB will assess the claim, and may get their own doctors to undertake a report, but in all likelihood you will probably want to go to through to the Courts after PIAB delivers it's assessment, but that's a matter for you and your solicitor when the time comes.

mary p

so if the board can not access a case and it is let go on to court,the whole process begins over.court could take another few years.....
iam sure the boards doctors etc are well able to access most cases !

nuac

If there is uncertainty about the longterm prgnosis e.g if the medical rheports mention reviewing in six months, you are better off going to court.

PIAB may agree if asked, so that time can be saved with the trial preliminaries while waiting the final med report.

micky007

Has anyone got offers from the insurance company before the insurance company agreed or after they agreed to be assessed by the piab??
Do they make 3 offers or is that just pub talk??

kennM

micky007 wrote: »

Has anyone got offers from the insurance company before the insurance company agreed or after they agreed to be assessed by the piab??
Do they make 3 offers or is that just pub talk??

I was chatting to PIAB today myself and the impression I got from the lady on the phone is that on occasion insurance companies will try and negotiate a settlement during the 90 day period there is between PIAB submission and acceptance/rejection of liability.... i.e. giving PIAB the go ahead to assess.

Regarding 3 offers.... never heard of that before. I'd say its pub talk. If you have ongoing injuries you are better off letting PIAB run its course to allow time for injuries to resolve or any long term effects become known rather than rushing into settling..... if injuries work out worse then expected its hard luck at that point.

mary p

I seen on this site where the insurance company offered the injuried party small amounts hoping they would settle early.....

kennM

mary p wrote: »

I seen on this site where the insurance company offered the injuried party small amounts hoping they would settle early.....

Oh absolutely, you can bet your bottom dollar on that one.... its in an insurance companies best interests to settle for as little as possible. They have to look after their shareholders, customers, board of directors, staff, etc.... where do you reckon a claimant falls in that list of priorities! They don't want to give you more than PIAB or than court for that matter.

Corruptable

The insurance company is permitted to make offers to you to settle outside of PIAB before the process starts I believe. I'm not 100% sure on if they are allowed once the process starts. I cannot confirm how many offers they will make, but what I do now is that it's often much lower than the PIAB award, and several times lower than the Court award.

Generally you should contact your solicitor about these offers, before considering accepting them, as often times your solicitor will be unaware of specific offers as the insurance companies often try to bypass him or her, and only send the offers directly to the plaintiff.

RGS

Corruptable wrote: »

The insurance company is permitted to make offers to you to settle outside of PIAB before the process starts I believe. I'm not 100% sure on if they are allowed once the process starts. I cannot confirm how many offers they will make, but what I do now is that it's often much lower than the PIAB award, and several times lower than the Court award.

Not always the case--I know of a number of recent cases where the court awarded a claimant less than the PIAB award leaving the claimant to pick up the legal costs of both sides.

Insurance companies delaing with claimants directly are obliged to make fair offers, different when dealing with solicitors.
Offers can be made at any stage in the PIAB process.

The best person to advise you on your particular case is your solicitor who has access to your medical reports. Generally the value of the case is far less the claimant believes the case is worth.

Corruptable

RGS wrote: »

Not always the case--I know of a number of recent cases where the court awarded a claimant less than the PIAB award leaving the claimant to pick up the legal costs of both sides.

Insurance companies delaing with claimants directly are obliged to make fair offers, different when dealing with solicitors.
Offers can be made at any stage in the PIAB process.

The best person to advise you on your particular case is your solicitor who has access to your medical reports. Generally the value of the case is far less the claimant believes the case is worth.

I was going to come to that if the issue of costs was raised, but I trust the OP's solicitor will be able to deal with that if PIAB issues the authorisation to proceed to court.

When I was going through modules on PIAB first it was always portrayed as a waste of time (low awards, incompetent staff, etc.), to be honest, but I'm sure things have changed now that it has settled into the sector as a necessary requirement in dealing with PI cases.

BHD

Hi all

I am going through the same procedure at the moment in regards to an injury. I went today to see an independent consultant(sent by the injuries board) in relation to my injuries. They are ongoing even after 2 surgeries and the consultant told me today that I'm facing a shoulder replacement to rectify the problem. Will this go to court do you think or will be be settled through Injuries board.?
I will keep you all updated as the case progresses.

mary p

hi
Was the doctor you were sent to the by the piab alright??i heard of people going to doctors for the insurance companys and they were very nasty.they would,nt listen to what was wrong with the person......
So if the piab does,nt resolve your case,you have to go back to the start and start court proceedings...that would be a waste of 2years for you.
you would think that all the foot work was done at this stage,medical reports,liability and it should be just a matter of getting a court date

Corruptable

mary p wrote: »

So if the piab does,nt resolve your case,you have to go back to the start and start court proceedings...that would be a waste of 2years for you.

Precisely. If one side doesn't consent to PIAB assessing the claim it goes straight to court, but it would probably look bad for a plaintiff to do that and there's no incentive for the insurance company to object to PIAB handling the case as it keeps the case away and the plaintiff might take the PIAB offer.

Any reports have to be up to date at the time of court proceedings, as it otherwise might not be an accurate assessment of the person's condition (it might have got better or worse). Essentially, the case is frozen from a legal perspective when it's in PIAB, but once it comes back out, it often almost starts all over again for the solicitor that's handling it as time is ticking again on statute of limitations, and to obtain the updated reports, get witnesses/experts on standby, etc.

BHD

Hi all

Mary the Consultant I seen today was very nice and I was surprised how well I was treated. I didn't know what to expect and thought that he would be judging me if you know what I mean.
He listened to me and gave me advice on my injury aswell which I thought was very decent of him after all I was only there for an assessment. He did not judge me in any way or form. He told me not word for word, what he would be writing in the report but assured me that he would include all my injuries, pain etc and the fact that he felt I may need a new shoulder or definitely follow up treatment.
If Piab don't assess then I will be given a letter to proceed to court which could take 18 months and a further follow up assessment/ medical report by my consultant.

mary p

Hi
Thanks for that info.
Id say there was alot of people that have to see the pib,s doctors and they would to be expecting to be grilled by the doctors!

kennM

I went to see a doctor for the other parties insurance company and found them fine. If anything he knew more about the injuries I had then the doctors that were treating me! and gave me some feedback......

Listened to details, asked questions and genuinely listened. Didn't feel uncomfortable at all. I'd say they are very good at rooting out fakes.... if you have nothing to hide then you won't have a problem.

BHD

Mary p
I was too expecting to be grilled.... But was pleasantly surprised. Glad its all over, well that part anyway. The next is waiting to hear whether Piab will assess the case, then seeing what type of an offer they make. I am led to believe that some respondents are known to drag the plaintiff through Piab etc only to reject the offer Piab make in an effort to drag the case out. I don't know how much this is true as I can't see how they would benefit from this as the plaintiff (me) would know how much Piab was offering and thus would definitely not be accepting less compensation from the respondents. I feel in that case that they would be taking a chance going to court then... Any ideas on this?

BHD

Kenn

I totally agree with everything you said. I got great feedback aswell and also felt like he knew more about my injury than my treating doctor too.!!
I would say they are trained to spot the fakers!!
The gentleman I seen was an older man with 40+ years of experience and I asked as many questions as he did!

blueythebear

BHD wrote: »

Mary p
I was too expecting to be grilled.... But was pleasantly surprised. Glad its all over, well that part anyway. The next is waiting to hear whether Piab will assess the case, then seeing what type of an offer they make. I am led to believe that some respondents are known to drag the plaintiff through Piab etc only to reject the offer Piab make in an effort to drag the case out. I don't know how much this is true as I can't see how they would benefit from this as the plaintiff (me) would know how much Piab was offering and thus would definitely not be accepting less compensation from the respondents. I feel in that case that they would be taking a chance going to court then... Any ideas on this?

Insurance companies don't attempt to drag these things out as it is in their interest to settle early and settle low. Court awards are higher than PIAB as a general rule and there are also legal costs which would add to the insurance companies bill so Court is not really attractive to the insurers.

You appear to have a serious ongoing condition and you should if you have not done so already, consult a solicitor. With ongoing injuries that may require an entire shoulder replacement, you should not accept PIAB's assessment unless you have properly informed legal advice. I cannot stress to you enough that a solicitor's advice is vital in your case.

BHD

Bluethebear

Thanks for your response and the valued information. Yes I have consulted a solicitor and from the word go he said that it sounded like it was going to be an ongoing problem due to the severity of the injury. He said that it will probably go to court as Piab won't assess due to ongoing issues with the injury. We are prepared to go to court from the beginning and witnesses etc have been informed that they may have to attend. It would be great if Piab settled with a decent compensation package taking into consideration the injury and the need for a replacement in the near future. Would love to put all this behind me. Has been going on 2 years and 1 month already since the accident.

BHD

Hi all

One thing I would like to add is that there is a Form B that can be downloaded on the injuries board website. It's a form that the consultant is supposed to be guided by and also information for the plaintiff on what questions he/ she is likely to be asked at the indepentent assessment. It's basically a template for the doctors on what information the injuries board requires.
The reason I am posting is that I was NEVER asked any of these questions such as how many times I have seen consultant /physiotherapist. How my mobility is in relation to walking bending sitting etc. obviously the consultant will be able to work out the mobility issues for himself/herself but I don't know about the rest. I just wanted to put it out there that not all consultants stick rigidly to the template.

Milk & Honey

Corruptable wrote: »

Precisely. If one side doesn't consent to PIAB assessing the claim it goes straight to court, but it would probably look bad for a plaintiff to do that and there's no incentive for the insurance company to object to PIAB handling the case as it keeps the case away and the plaintiff might take the PIAB offer.

.

The Plaintiff has no option in allowing PIAB assess the claim. It is only the Respondent who can decline. The Plaintiff only has the option of not accepting the award made and going to court. The Respondent can refuse to allow the award to be assessed or else refuse to accept the award.

BHD

Corruptable

Am I right in saying that Piab can still refuse to make an offer of an award to me due to the fact that I gave ongoing issues? In that case then they issue me with a release letter allowing me to take the case to court?

BHD

Just found this on the website:




An Authorisation to go to court may also be issued in exceptional cases and InjuriesBoard.ie will advise both the Claimant and the Respondent if the claim falls within this category.

Would I fall into the exceptional case? Is that where people with ongoing issues fall?
If so it would be a lot of people heading to the court at that rate.
Please advise me all you wonderful people!!

mary p

Hi BHD
Did the doctor ask about what medication your on and had you to list them out?
Its just iam taking alot different medication for pain and other problems.

You would think the injuries board could give you a fair settlement now instead of you having to start court proceedings.you sound like you have been through enough.
Is that not what PIAB was set up for.........

BHD

mary p wrote: »

Hi BHD
Did the doctor ask about what medication your on and had you to list them out?
Its just iam taking alot different medication for pain and other problems

No he didn't ask about medication. What he did say to me was that he will speak also to my consultant who preformed the surgery.
I too was expecting a whole lot of question etc but it never happened. I think I will write the Piab a letter outlining the things that was never brought up in the assessment to accompany the medical letter if I'm allowed that I feel are relevant.