Client Videos

Information required from you at the beginning of your case

The information that we will require from you at the start of your case is:

– how the accident happened,
– the date the accident happened and,
– where it happened.

If it’s a road traffic accident, we will seek:
– the details of the defendant’s motor tax office registration number,
– insurance details, if you have them,
– whether the Gardaí were called to the scene of the accident and
– what medical attention you had.

If it’s an accident at work, it’s important that we know:
– exactly how the accident happened,
– whether it was reported to your employer,
– whether an accident report form was completed,
– and whom you first attended for medical attention.

How does the Injuries board work:

As you know, your case has just been lodged in the Injuries Board.

So, the way the Injuries Board process works, all victims of an accident have the obligation under the law in Ireland to lodge their case into the Injuries Board.

The Injuries Board are like an arbitrator, or a mediator and their job is to try and resolve the cases without the need for them to go to court.

How the Injuries Board do this is, they will write to the person who you have claimed as responsible for your injury, and they will ask them if they would like to opt-in to the Injuries Board process.

So, they’re effectively asking them would they like the Injuries Board to value the injury. The Injuries Board will give that person 90 days to respond, so they get quite a long time to say yes or no to the process.

If they say yes to the process, the Injuries Board will then take nine months to value your case and during that time they will send you to an independent doctor to get an update on your injuries to see how you’re doing. They’ll also get details of any out-of-pocket expenses you have as a result of the accident.

The idea is at the end of the 9 months the Injuries Board will then be able to suggest how much compensation you should get for your pain and suffering, and for your out-of-pocket expenses and of course some expenses incurred in bringing the case.

We will then guide you through by looking at that valuation from the Injuries Board and advise you, would this be a good result? Would there be a better result if you were to go to the court? If you were to go to the court if your medical or your injuries had deteriorated since the Injuries Board doctor saw you, and we will help you make an informed decision as regards whether you want to say yes or no to that valuation.

Likewise, the other side will say yes or no to that valuation.

If all parties say yes that they’re happy with the Injuries Board result, the case is settled but if either the other side won’t let the Injuries Board value the case or maybe you’re not happy with the result of the Injuries Board, or the other side are not happy with the result from the Injuries Board the case is simply released by the Injuries Board and we can proceed to step 2 of the claims process, which is issuing court proceedings.

If you have any questions on the Injuries Board process, don’t hesitate to give us a call and we can talk you through it.

Loss of earnings: what we need from you and why clear information is required (employed):

As a result of your accident, you’ve been out of work and it’s very important that we capture any lost earnings that you might have so that we can claim that back for you. The only way we can claim those lost earnings back is if we have really good and really precise proof of what the loss is.

The proof that’s required really will depend on what way your employment is set up. So if you are employed by an employer, the employer can give you details of your lost earnings. This is something you can ask the employer for, or you can get us to write to them to ask, so we can help you with that.

So if you have an employer and you pay PAYE tax in Ireland as per your pay slips, your employer will be able to verify what money you have lost when you are out of work as a result of this accident and we can claim that back for you in your case.

So we’re always here if you need to talk to us about this, and this part of the case, because it can be tricky. But the main things are: you must have paperwork verifying the loss, if you’re employed your employer does the calculation and will provide the proof, and we can help you ask for that.

So again, if you have any questions about it let us know but hopefully we’ll be able to get the proof together and get that included in your case

Loss of earnings: what we need from you and why clear information is required (self-employed):

As a result of your accident, you’ve been out of work and it’s very important that we capture any lost earnings that you might have, so that we can claim that back for you. The only way we can claim those lost earnings back is if we have really good and really precise proof of what the loss is.

The proof that’s required really will depend on what way your employment is set up. If you’re self-employed, as in you work for yourself, you’ve no employer, it’s a little bit different in terms of what proof that we will need, and it’s really important that your proof is very precise when you work for yourself. Generally, you will have an accountant who might do your books and your tax returns when you’re self-employed and that is the person who will be best placed to do the details of your lost earnings because of your accident.

If you don’t have an accountant, that doesn’t mean that it’s not possible to claim the lost earnings if you’re self-employed but it just means that the obligation on calculating that will fall to you. So you will have to make sure that all of your documents in terms of how you run your business, and your financial documents and revenue returns, are all up to date and in order, so that you can give us the details to the very cent of what you’ve lost as a result of the accident.

I must say, it’s much more difficult if you don’t have an accountant to get those proofs together. So sometimes you might need to ask an accountant to do that job for you. But they will only be able to do it if you have all of the information and you can give it to them. So we’re always here if you need to talk to us about this and this this part of the case, because it can be tricky. But the main things are: you must have paperwork verifying the loss, if you’re self-employed you should have an accountant to do that piece of work for you and if you don’t you need to be very very careful to ensure that all of your papers are in order when you do that calculation for us.

So again, if you have any queries about it let us know, but hopefully, we’ll be able to get the proof together and get that included in your case.

How medical appointments work and what we need clients to do:

It’s important that when you attend your doctor, that you explain exactly what happened and how the accident has affected you and after that, your doctor will send us the medical report, we’ll review it with you and then we’ll send it to the injuries board.

Schedule of special damages:

So we’ve just sent you out a document called the schedule of Special Damages, and this is basically just us detailing any out-of-pocket expenses you’ve had in connection with your accident, now that your case is in court.

So you’ll see from the document, we’ve put down the details of any expenses that we have details of on our file, and we’ve put the amounts in, as per the receipts that we have on the file.

So, this is your opportunity now for you to update us if you might have any more receipts. Please let us know if there’s anything else you’re out-of-pocket for, and we can add that into this document for you once you tell us.

What are the timelines/expectations to get documents (e.g. initial papers, affidavit of verification, etc) back from you (and why):

When we open up your file we will send you some initial documents, and we need to get those back from you before we pay for a medical report from your doctor.

Generally speaking throughout the course of your file, will be sending you documents and asking you to return them as soon as possible.

The reason we want them returned as soon as possible, is that they’re required in order to progress your case, so failure to send us documents in a timely manner may result in your case being delayed.

What is an affidavit of verification:

An affidavit of verification is a document which you swear on, advising that the personal injury summons, or the replies to particulars, is that the information contained within those documents is true and correct, to the best of your knowledge and belief and ability.

These documents are very important because an affidavit of verification is contained within a court file, and if your case goes to court you may be cross examined on what’s contained within the personal injury summons and replies for particulars, and your affidavit verification advises the court that you are swearing up to the truthfulness contained in those documents.