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IIF publishes analysis of compensation board

Posted On: Jan. 29, 2007 12:00 AM CST

DUBLIN, Republic of Ireland— The Irish Insurance Federation has published an independent analysis of the country's Personal Injuries Assessment Board.

The report, "a cost benefit analysis of the PIAB," was compiled by Vincent Hogan, from University College Dublin.

The PIAB was set up in 2004, as cheaper alternative to court in settling uncontested personal injury insurance claims. Since then, it has saved more than €24 million ($31 million)in litigation costs on the 3,137 cases where its award was accepted by both parties, according to the report.

Michael Horan, non-life manager at the IIF, described as, "a far cry from the bad old days when non-compensation costs amounted to an overhead of 46% on top of the cost of compensation."

The report found that the overall figure of €24 million (431 million) represented a saving of €6,373 ($8,228) on the typical case that would have gone to the Circuit Court, which is an 88% saving over court costs. This also represented a saving of €27,703 ($35,768) for a High Court case - a 97% reduction.

In addition to being cheaper to settle these claims, Mr. Horan pointed out that the cases have been resolved more quickly, with 90% of cases assessed by the PIAB in one year.

Mr. Horan said that these reduced costs were good news for both insurers and consumers they have enabled the former to decrease the price of their premiums.

While the PIAB deals with employers liability and public liability, as yet there are no plans to extend its remit further into the commercial arena.

The report can be found online at www.piab.ie/pdf/CostBenefitAnalysis.pdf