Payout problems

The Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) is not proving the low-cost, high-speed system for processing claims that was promised, in the experience of consumers who contacted The Irish Timesabout their cases.

One mother described how her daughter tripped on a broken pavement one night almost three years ago. As she fell, a bottle she was carrying broke and severed three of the tendons in her wrist.

The local council replaced the pavement and admitted liability, so it seemed all the PIAB had to do was come up with a figure for agreed damages.

Yet what followed turned into a "nightmare" according to the mother. "First, they lost her file. They eventually said it was a 'technical error'. When the initial three-month period was up and we discovered this, we had to start all over again," she says. "My daughter went to a consultant who filed a report, but PIAB rejected this, saying they couldn't read the writing. But we only learned of this after four months."

PIAB directed the student to go to another consultant on a specified date. By then, however, she was living abroad. Unable to attend on the date in question, as she had exams, she offered to go another time. PIAB refused to change the appointment and said it would not process the claim if the original date wasn't kept to. At this point, her mother made direct contact with the surgeon, who arranged to see the student when she was home at Christmas.

The nine-month processing period passed before the PIAB contacted the student again.

It said it was unable to process her case because she had ongoing injuries and authorised her to enter the case into the courts system.

After almost three years the student finds herself back at square one, with her case set to meander through the courts system for years in the time-honoured fashion.

In another case, a 32-year-old woman who injured her back paid €320 to be seen by an orthopaedic doctor, €500 for an MRI scan, €300 for an X-ray, and €270 for a second appointment with the orthopaedist. She also had to see another doctor nominated by the PIAB, who paid for this visit.

After eight months, the agency told her it was releasing the case to the courts, as her injuries were ongoing and there was no prospect of her finishing therapy before its nine-month deadline for handling cases.

A PIAB spokesman said he could not talk about specific claimants for confidentiality and data-protection reasons. "We are a public service; where someone has an issue, they should talk to us so that we may resolve it. Our general feedback is extremely positive."