COURT awards for personal injuries are unlikely to be capped, but guidelines on the amounts toe be awarded could be introduced if the recommendations of consultants who examined insurance costs are implemented.

A wide ranging study to be published later today is expected to confirm that the cost of liability or personal injury claims in Ireland is much higher than in Britain and other countries.

But consultants Deloitte and Touche, who carried out the study, are understood to have found that most High Court awards in personal injury cases fell within the range of guidelines set for court awards in Britain. Very large awards were the exception rather than the rule in personal injury cases, the consultants found.

For this reason, capping or setting maximum levels for general damages - compensation for pain and suffering - would be unlikely to lead to reductions in insurance premiums.

Having examined the methods of calculating damages in other countries, the consultants are likely to suggest a system of deciding awards similar to that in operation in Britain.

Under this system, the courts refer to a schedule of monetary guidelines for specific injuries in deciding the amount of compensation to be awarded.

The consultants examined differences in the costs of insurance for large and smaller firms. They examined the legal costs involved in the overall costs of settlements. They are understood to have made a number of recommendations in these areas.

In 1995 the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise and Employment, Mr Pat Rabbitte, commissioned an economic study to evaluate the costs in the insurance industry and to establish the key factors behind these costs.

The move followed strong pressure on Mr Rabbitte to introduce legislation to cap court awards in personal injury cases. Insurance industry and business interests argued that High Court awards for personal injuries were pushing up the cost of insurance for business and putting Irish businesses at a disadvantage compared to international competitors.

However, Mr Rabbitte was concerned that the problem of insurance costs was "much wider than the level of personal injury awards.

Stating that there was no definitive study to show how tackling pain and suffering awards would reduce the cost of insurance, Mr Rabbitte decided to commission a full evaluation of the situation.

"I am not prepared to go down the road of the experience we had with the abolition of juries. If I introduce legislation, I want to be fairly certain it will bring down costs," he said.

Initially, the study was to focus on the cost of personal injury/ liability insurance and the trend in costs in Ireland, Britain and some EU countries over five and 10 year periods and to examine the impact of costs on competitiveness of Irish business.

The terms of reference were later extended to allow an examination of the costs of motor insurance, claims settlement experience and the impact of factors such as "no foal, no fee" on the propensity for litigation.

The consultants invited representations from the insurance industry, business interests and other bodies.