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Personal injuries - Are there any "typical" rules of thumb/heuristics?

  • 30-11-2013 10:32am
    #1
    kennM
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭


    Good morning all,

    Quick question... are there any typical rules of thumb that applies to PI general damages (pain and suffering). I'm aware there is the book of quantum etc, but you often see injury awards that bear no resemblance to the valuation as per BOQ. The BOQ becomes more opaque when you are dealing with multiple injuries.

    I've came across a number of websites outside Ireland which allude to rules of thumb whereby the general damages typically fall in a range as a multiple of the special damages... for example: http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Bodily-Injury-Settlements. In the link above you have the following (for 100% non fault accidents):

    Calculate the settlement amount to be disbursed for injuries. Insurance companies use several formulas to calculate settlement amounts to be paid to an injured party that is not at fault or caused the accident.
    The formula generally used for injuries that are not too severe is:
    Special damages x 1.5 + income that was, or will be, lost due to injury.
    In the event of severe injuries, the formula generally used is:
    Special damages x 5.0 + income that was, or will be, lost due to injury.
    Compensation for extreme personal injuries will be calculated using:
    Special damages x 10.0 + income that was, or will be, lost due to injury.



    Interested to get any informed opinions on this...


Comments

  • #2
    hullaballoo
    Administrators, Entertainment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 18,773 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭hullaballoo


    The Book of Quantum is outdated but even if it wasn't it's useless.

    Awards are based on the facts of cases and are assessed by judges who are experienced at assessing damages. Generally, the awards for pain and suffering are reducing. The largest part of an award is usually loss of earnings and or future care. The big awards are for catastrophic injuries.

    Special damages are an actuarial formula, so your multipliers there are completely off the mark. Special damages are calculated on the basis that they are/will be costs directly associated with the injury. The only multipliers used will be actuarial and based on the likely rate of inflation and future value of the award. It's not "X x Y".


  • #3
    Bepolite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,737 ✭✭✭Bepolite


    A bit of an aside but juries where eliminated from the vast majority of civil claims on the basis they were awarding too much. (Over simplified). An oft shared anecdote is that since then awards have only gone up! Any truth to that tale?


  • #4
    johnnyskeleton
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 14,549 Mod ✭✭✭✭johnnyskeleton


    The big insurance companies have expensive computers with bespoke software that estimates the value of each claim.

    Claimants use a more powerful, but more unpredictable, computation device, the human mind.

    Generally, a broken Leg is worth X because that's what the last settlement/judgment said it was worth.

    In my view, not that anybody listens to me, is that the sum should represent the price of an item which could be bought with it. Was your injury a ferraris amount of pain, or a mere all expenses paid trip to New York? One person might be happy with a simple acknowledgement, others wouldn't be happy with all the tea in china, so I suppose whatever the average person would believe is fair is more realistic.


  • #5
    kennM
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭kennM


    hullaballoo wrote: »
    The Book of Quantum is outdated but even if it wasn't it's useless.

    Awards are based on the facts of cases and are assessed by judges who are experienced at assessing damages. Generally, the awards for pain and suffering are reducing. The largest part of an award is usually loss of earnings and or future care. The big awards are for catastrophic injuries.

    Special damages are an actuarial formula, so your multipliers there are completely off the mark. Special damages are calculated on the basis that they are/will be costs directly associated with the injury. The only multipliers used will be actuarial and based on the likely rate of inflation and future value of the award. It's not "X x Y".

    I've no doubt that you are 100% right... how does your average person assess/estimate what a fair value for a settlement is? To put incredibly simplistic terms on it, you're being asked to sell/settle something that the injured person really has no easy way to quantify the true value of.

    When doing my research I have came across websites from the UK, Australia the US etc. that speak of rough general rules of thumbs where general can the estimated using special damages time X(its not exact but typical gives a ball park idea). Most websites seem to be talking in the 1.5 to 4 range. The numbers I quoted were just a copy and paste off a website (not as proposed figures but by way of example to explain the concept).

    How does one research/estimate what a fair valuation is, especially when multiple injuries are involved? I've seen many general damages valuations which bear little resemblance to BOQ figures.


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