Irelands Claim Culture Exceptional Pay Outs Mega Thread

Duane Dibbley

Hi All

I thought it would be a good idea to have a Mega- Thread where the courts seem to be awarding excessive pay outs on claims for discussion.


Today I seen the Title

"Boy who fell off bike and cut lip after allegedly hitting pot hole awarded €65,000 damages"

A BOY who injured his lip when he fell off his bike after the front wheel allegedly hit a pot hole has settled his High Court action for €65,000.

Malcolm Akpaka, who was then eight years old, was cycling in Cruise Park Close in Tyrrelstown, Dublin on July 14 2011 when it is claimed his front wheel hit the pothole which was one foot deep.

Mr Justice Garret Simons was told the boy, who had been cycling at Cruise Park Close, in Tyrrelstown, Dublin, suffered a deep laceration to his upper lip.

He was taken to hospital and had to have stitches to the lip and has now been left with a scar.

Malcolm Akpaka (now aged 16) Cruise Park Drive, Tyrrelstown,Dublin had sued Fisher Property Management Ltd, Main Street, Ongar, Dublin and Tyrrelstown No 8 Management Company Ltd care of Fisher Property Management, which were responsible for maintenance of the estate common area and Earthwood Ltd, The Plaza, Tyrrelstown, Dublin, which constructed the roads in the estate over the accident.

The accident was on a road way with a cobblelock footway and the pothole it was claimed was between the cobblelock and the tarmacadam.

The claims were denied by all three defendants and the court heard that liability was at issue between the defendants.

Mr Justice Simons said he was satisfied to make an order ruling the settlement. The settlement is without an admission of liability.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/boy-who-fell-off-bike-and-cut-lip-after-allegedly-hitting-pot-hole-awarded-65000-damages-38619109.html

Jurgen The German

Not only did he get €65k, you will also have his solicitors fees and the insurers solicitors fees to be paid out. That's a minimum of a €100k claim.

Alot of people blast insurers for settling out of court, is it any facking wonder they will try to.

The young lad recieved an injury and has a right to make a claim and I'd have no issue with that if the accident was the result of inaction by the policy holder ie knowing there was a significant pothole and not doing anything about it.

But €65k for a cut lip?

Jesus wept.

I saw last week a number of solicitors came out and advised people making personal injury claims to have their social media accounts locked down and to not accept friend requests from strangers in case its investigators doing their job.

Why would someone have something to hide if their claim was genuine?

Below contains the response from the law society when they were questioned.

When asked about certain firms offering advice about private investigators and social media posts, the Law Society of Ireland said it couldn't comment due to "legal reasons".

However, a spokesperson said: "Solicitors have a duty of care to their clients and are obliged to act in the best interests of their clients.

"Solicitors are also officers of the court and, therefore, also have a duty to assist the court in the administration of justice and should not deceive, or knowingly or recklessly, mislead the court."

Neil McDonnell, CEO of ISME, said he has received anecdotal evidence from business owners that a degree of ‘coaching’, as opposed to giving legal advice, is taking place.

"We view this as highly improper, but it is extremely hard to detect, and lawyer-client communications are privileged.

"The Irish courts are so demonstrably pro-plaintiff. As the regulatory body for solicitors in Ireland, we believe the Law Society should be auditing representative numbers of client files to establish if coaching is taking place.”

Full article here.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/be-careful-of-random-friend-requests-lawyers-warning-injury-clients-about-private-investigators-and-social-media-38590744.html

Is it any wonder that claims are at epidemic level when the organisation representing the biggest beneficiaries comes out with shyte like that.

Gatling

Another rediculous payout

Lewis_Benson

For a cut lip....ffs

SEPT 23 1989

Jurgen The German wrote: »

Not only did he get €65k, you will also have his solicitors fees and the insurers solicitors fees to be paid out. That's a minimum of a €100k claim.

Alot of people blast insurers for settling out of court, is it any facking wonder they will try to.

The young lad recieved an injury and has a right to make a claim and I'd have no issue with that if the accident was the result of inaction by the policy holder ie knowing there was a significant pothole and not doing anything about it.

But €65k for a cut lip?

Jesus wept.

I saw last week a number of solicitors came out and advised people making personal injury claims to have their social media accounts locked down and to not accept friend requests from strangers in case its investigators doing their job.

Why would someone have something to hide if their claim was genuine?

Below contains the response from the law society when they were questioned.



Full article here.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/be-careful-of-random-friend-requests-lawyers-warning-injury-clients-about-private-investigators-and-social-media-38590744.html

Is it any wonder that claims are at epidemic level when the organisation representing the biggest beneficiaries comes out with shyte like that.

Parasites just like the claimants

Boggles

Duane Dibbley wrote: »

I thought it would be a good idea to have a Mega- Thread where the courts seem to be awarding excessive pay outs on claims for discussion.

It was a settlement. It says it twice in the article, headline is wrong.

Kiith

And all i got for those 3 stitches in my knee (which i still have a scar from...the horror!) was some ice cream. Guess i needed a better solicitor.

Mebuntu

A 12 month old baby had his social life "severely interfered with" following a scalding incident onboard an Aer Lingus flight. The burns healed well. 11K offer from Aer Lingus approved by Judge.

https://www.thejournal.ie/baby-hot-liquid-spilled-aer-lingus-damages-4862766-Oct2019/

Eric Cartman

why is it only ever unemployed/working class people who ever seem to get claims ?

Boggles

Eric Cartman wrote: »

why is it only ever unemployed/working class people who ever seem to get claims ?

Citation?

What's after working class, upper class?

Eric Cartman

Boggles wrote: »

Citation?

What's after working class, upper class?

after working class is middle class.
sure you see it in every single story, where it says of x estate , you google maps it and its always a council estate or the kid who got the payout is a tracksuit clad scobe or the mother is coming out of court with big knacker hoop earrings and missing teeth.

sure theres an ad running on 98fm at the moment for a solicitors that specialises in personal injury , offices in finglas, clondalkin, Tallaght and coolock. Ive yet to ever hear of a personal injury solicitor with offices in foxrock, dalkey and killiney.

Its a culture dominated by the lower income earners and I think thats no coincidence.

Boggles

Eric Cartman wrote: »

Its a culture dominated by the lower income earners and I think thats no coincidence.

So you think "middle class" people don't have claims? :pac:

Like fúck they don't.

There has been a pretty "infamous" one doing the rounds the past few months.

Eric Cartman

Boggles wrote: »

So you think "middle class" people don't have claims? :pac:

Like fúck they don't.

There has been a pretty "infamous" one doing the rounds the past few months.

Nobody is saying they dont, but nowhere near the amount the unemployed / lower income earners do. Every single stupid payout for cut lips/ bruised arms/ luas surfing / fake car crashes that we complain about here have all come from that lower income tier.

Boggles

Eric Cartman wrote: »

Nobody is saying they dont

Really?

Eric Cartman wrote: »

why is it ONLY EVER unemployed/working class people who ever seem to get claims ?

NIMAN

Mebuntu wrote: »

A 12 month old baby had his social life "severely interfered with" following a scalding incident onboard an Aer Lingus flight. The burns healed well. 11K offer from Aer Lingus approved by Judge.

https://www.thejournal.ie/baby-hot-liquid-spilled-aer-lingus-damages-4862766-Oct2019/

??

To be fair, baby probably has a better social life than me.:D

lawred2

One foot deep?

Lol

Pi$$ off.. it must have been excavated prior to the incident for it to get to that depth.

NIMAN

Think its worth adding the stat that was published recently that 95% of those undergoing physio for whiplash claims stop their treatment immediately when the claim is paid out.

That says a lot.

Whiplash claims should be the starting point for the reform of the claim structures in this country.

banie01

What's the criteria for a ridiculous claim?
Are posters of awards going to set the award against a book of quantum estimate for the injury? And present future costs or loss of earnings estimates as part of their rebuttal?

Yes, we can all agree some awards are crazy but without comparing like with like and against some kind of baseline...
Its a fairly pointless exercise in hand wringing

Eric Cartman

NIMAN wrote: »

Think its worth adding the stat that was published recently that 95% of those undergoing physio for whiplash claims stop their treatment immediately when the claim is paid out.

That says a lot.

Whiplash claims should be the starting point for the reform of the claim structures in this country.

Whiplash should be a 5000 euro one time only payout, reduced to 2000 if youre long term unemployed. The amount of serial claims is staggering.

Duane Dibbley

A Ryanair employee, who claimed she had injured her shoulder after stretching to place a number of boxes on high shelves, has been awarded €10,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court.

Judge John O’ Connor heard from Csilla Andrasine-Magyar, two weeks ago, that she had been filing written aircraft documentation into boxes and placing them on a number of high shelves, when she had injured herself in January, 2016.

Ms Andrasine-Magyar told the court she believed her injury had happened in January as there had been a backlog of documentation to be filed following Christmas.
She said she had waited until June 2017 to take legal action against Ryanair as she had hoped her injury would clear up but instead it had continued to get worse.

Judge O’ Connor had been told by Andrasine-Magyar that she had restricted movement in her shoulder and had struggled to brush or wash her hair or carry shopping bags. He heard she had been diagnosed with a condition known as ‘Frozen Shoulder,’ a disorder that caused her shoulder joint to swell, making it very painful for her to move her arm.


Andrasine-Magyar had told the court that she had chosen not to use a footstool, which had been provided by Ryanair to assist employees reaching up to higher shelves, as she felt it would have been unsafe to use it.

Today, in a reserved judgement, Judge O’ Connor said it had been Ryanair’s responsibility to ensure Ms Andrasine-Magar had been provided with a safe place to work. He accepted that lifting boxes over her head had played a role in the development of her shoulder symptoms.

He said he also accepted that if Ms Andrasine-Magyar had used the footstool provided for her, the lifting of the boxes would not have led to her injury. He had found it remarkable that no one from Ryanair had instructed her to use the footstool that had been there for her.

Judge O’ Connor said Ryanair had been negligent in failing to have carried out an adequate risk assessment with regard to the way Ms Andrasine-Magyar had been carrying out her work.

He said she herself had also been negligent in not using the footstool provided, the use of which had been inherently safe to do so, despite her misgivings.

Judge O’ Connor said Ryanair and their employee had each been equally liable for the incident.

He assessed full liability at €20,000 but, based on Ms Andrasine-Magyar’s contributory negligence, he cut her damages award to €10,000.

Overheal

lawred2 wrote: »

One foot deep?

Lol

Pi$$ off.. it must have been excavated prior to the incident for it to get to that depth.

Wow why didn’t the defendants think of that argument. You should become a barrister

lawred2

Overheal wrote: »

Wow why didn’t the defendants think of that argument. You should become a barrister

ok

Duane Dibbley

It would be interesting to see which Judges are paying out on claims that I would think are excessive.

Judge John O'Connor - 10,000 to Ryanair employee who hurt shoulder

Judge John O'Connor - 43,000 to girl who fractured her elbow after slipping on loose gravel.

Mr Justice Garret Simons - 65,000 - Boy who fell off bike and cut lip after allegedly hitting pot hole awarded €65,000 damages"

Boggles

Duane Dibbley wrote: »

It would be interesting to see which Judges are paying out on claims that I would think are excessive.

Judge John O'Connor - 10,000 to Ryanair employee who hurt shoulder

Judge John O'Connor - 43,000 to girl who fractured her elbow after slipping on loose gravel.

Mr Justice Garret Simons - 65,000 - Boy who fell off bike and cut lip after allegedly hitting pot hole awarded €65,000 damages"

2 of them are settlements.

deandean

Here is one that caught my eye. Man fell down stairs in a work colleague's house after a work drinks party, and sued.
Now the poor guy suffered very serious injuries and the article should be read in full; but I would be reluctant to ever let work colleagues sleepover in my house after reading this.
How a settlement of this amount (550k) was offered I don't know, the judge said it was “..close to hopeless case from a legal point of view”.
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/man-with-head-injury-after-fall-in-house-after-office-party-settles-case-for-550k-961233.html

Boggles

Jaysus whatever about the settlement, but Mr Doyle and Ms Hobbs should have been arrested.

Absolute scumbags.

kippy

I've said it many times over the years but this type of thing is slowly ruining the country. Insurance costs are getting excessive for business with insurers using this type of thing as an excuse for raiding costs.
I cannot understand why it is taking so long to improve the situation. The electorate obviously don't have a big enough voice on it and our politicians seem to want to join in the fun.

strandroad

deandean wrote: »

How a settlement of this amount (550k) was offered I don't know, the judge said it was “..close to hopeless case from a legal point of view”.
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/man-with-head-injury-after-fall-in-house-after-office-party-settles-case-for-550k-961233.html

He now has a permanent disability so the awarded sum was only 10% of his original claim as his own contribution is recognised.

They thought he was blind drunk so they put him in the car to drive off when he wakes up? Doesn't quite add up. I think it's fair to attribute some fault to the pair as well.

Gatling

Here a retired guard looking for €310,000 after breaking his baby finger 20 years ago and subsequently developed depression and had to retire but his identity was hidden seems a bit sus ?


https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/garda-who-quit-due-to-depression-over-injury-gets-76000-38665924.html


I'm all for guards getting something for getting injured in the line of duty but it seems many Garda claims seem to be looking hundreds of thousands in payouts , seems excessive amounts


And it's been noticed no claims made by Guards have ever been settled out of court


https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/judge-hits-out-at-lawyers-on-zero-settlement-rate-for-garda-claims-38665923.html