Why You Should Speak to Our Solicitors Before Accepting a PIAB Assessment

Has the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) recently assessed your personal injury claim? Speak to our solicitors before you accept their assessment.

We are frequently finding that PIAB assessments are too low and are not awarding correctly for multiple injuries. The problem is that if you accept their offer, you cannot ask for more compensation later on. You have to get it right the first time of asking.

Find out if your PIAB assessment is too low by speaking to us here at Mullins & Treacy LLP Solicitors. We are client focused and results driven.

Call us on 051 391 488 or email reception@mullinstreacy.ie for a no obligation enquiry.

PIAB assessments

The majority of personal injury claims in Ireland begin with an application to the PIAB. The basic premise is that the PIAB assesses your claim and determines how much compensation you should be awarded. However, you do not have to accept the PIAB assessment. You can reject their assessment and negotiate directly with the other side.

Related: How Does the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Work?

Rejecting the PIAB’s assessment

Why would you reject the PIAB’s assessment? Simple: because it is too low.

Remember, you can only claim for the same personal injury once. So, if you are harmed in a car accident, you can only make one compensation claim for that accident. It does not matter if you are later diagnosed with a slipped disc which was not taken into account during the original assessment. If you have already settled the claim, then you cannot ask for more money. Because of this, you absolutely have to be sure that you get the correct award.

But if you have submitted the application without the help of a solicitor, then how do you know whether the assessment is fair and reasonable? Again, the answer is simple: you won’t.

Assessments are too low

Personal injury awards are complex calculations. They are influenced by a wide range of factors, including:

The injuries you have experienced

The financial losses you have incurred to date

The financial losses you can expect to incur in the future

The guidelines and previous case law

Your age

Your prognosis

Interest payable

The PIAB does not always get it right.

Sometimes this is because you have not submitted all the evidence. Perhaps you have not included a comprehensive list of all your financial losses? This can include very nuanced details, such as the fact that you might have lost out on a promotion. Or maybe you have yet to recover fully from your injuries, meaning your injuries might actually be worse than you realise?

Other times, fault lies with the PIAB. In particular, we are seeing that the PIAB is not awarding correctly for multiple injuries. As a result, the award is far too low.

If you are acting on your own, then you will not necessarily know whether the PIAB’s assessment is accurate. This is perfectly understandable when you consider that people train for years to become personal injury solicitors.

Get legal advice before accepting

That is why we recommend that you speak to our solicitors before accepting the PIAB’s assessment.

You have 28 days in which to accept or reject the PIAB’s assessment. We advise that you use this time to speak to us here at Mullins & Treacy LLP Solicitors. We hate to see personal injury claims settle too low, as the only person that suffers is you – thereby negating the very purpose of personal injury law.

Our personal injury solicitors can examine the details of your accident and injuries against the PIAB’s assessment. We can then provide our professional opinion as to whether the offer is fair and reasonable, or whether it is too low – meaning you would be ‘under settling’ your claim.

If we advise that the assessment is too low, then we can explain what your options are going forward. The first step is usually to reject the assessment, after which the PIAB issues an authorisation. You (or preferably, your solicitor) can then negotiate directly with the defendant (or more likely, the defendant’s insurance company).

Ultimately, the decision is yours. If we advise that the assessment is unreasonable, but you want to accept anyway, then that is absolutely fine. However, it is better to make an informed decision now, rather than discover you have under-settled later on – by which time, it will be too late.

Contact us now

If you have not instructed a solicitor to deal with your PIAB application so far and you would like professional legal advice about a PIAB assessment of compensation, please contact us today. We are client focused and results driven. We provide legal advice you can trust.

Call us on 051 391 488 or email reception@mullinstreacy.ie for a no obligation enquiry.

Before you go…

It’s not just personal injury claims we specialise in! We can also help you with –

Property Transactions
Personal Injury
Medical Negligence
Wills
Powers of Attorney
Family Law

Links

How Does the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Work? https://mullinstreacy.ie/how-does-the-personal-injuries-assessment-board-work/