Recurring payments offered as part of court reforms

Legislation that would allow recurring payments to be made to people who suffer catastrophic injuries has been published by Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald.

The Bill comes as new figures show the Irish Courts Service is now managing €1.5 billion on behalf of 19,000 beneficiaries, many of whom are victims of accidents or medical negligence in need of long-term care.

Currently the courts can only award lump-sum payments to these people, leaving them at risk of running out of money, particularly if the cost of their care is higher than anticipated at the time of the award.

The new Civil Liability (Amendment) Bill attempts to address the problem by introducing a new model of periodic payments.

This would allow courts to decide that injured people can receive the cost of future care in the form of index-linked annual payments instead of a lump sum.

The legislation, which is expected to be enacted later this year, follows recommendations by the High Court’s working group.

“My legislative proposals aim to give much-needed financial security to those who have been catastrophically injured and who require long- term care,” the Minister said.

Ms Fitzgerald was confident the new measures could support catastrophically injured persons “without imposing undue liabilities on insurance companies or on other private defendants”.

According to the latest annual report of the Office of the Accountant of the Courts of Justice, the Courts Service here was administering €1.5 billion in funds on behalf of 19,000 beneficiaries as of the end of last year.

The money is managed by a court-appointed investment committee to ensure payments can be made to minors, who have been awarded damages by the courts, when they turn 18.

The committee also administers funds on behalf of 2,500 wards of the court, who cannot represent themselves for reasons of illness or mental capacity.

Catastrophic injuries

In many cases, these people have received large awards as a result of catastrophic injuries and will be dependent on medical services for the rest of their lives.

The office said investments in its income generation/growth fund had delivered a 67 per cent return for beneficiaries, net of fund management fees, over the past 11 years, including a 14 per cent return in 2014.

The performance of these court-managed funds was recently scrutinised by the Public Accounts Committee, with members raising concern about losses incurred during the financial crash. In one case, a fund of €510,000 fell in value to €280,000 in just five years.

Sean Quigley, the Accountant of the Courts of Justice, told The Irish Times that in most cases where monies run out, it is usually not down to investment performance but to insubstantial awards that do not stretch far enough.