Does the Injuries Board have no teeth?

If the respondent refuses to consent to assessment they can, and the PIAB give you authorisation to proceed to legal proceedings if you wish.
Even if they do consent to assessment, they can then refuse to agree to the award.
Most respondents probably think the claimant will give up at this point and it goes away (financial cost, time, effort, stress). Worst case it kicks the can down the road another 2-3 years likely and who knows what happens in the meantime.
 
messyleo said:
Worst case it kicks the can down the road another 2-3 years likely and who knows what happens in the meantime.
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Do all claims now have to go through the PIAB?

It seems pointless that you might have to wait over 2 years to find out that the respondent will not engage.

Can a person go direct to a solicitor and might this be a better route?
 
peteb said:
If the respondent is disputing liability then they refuse the assessment
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I had an idea that agreeing to the assessment was not an admission of liability?

So the assessment is done and the insurance company can still refuse liability?

Brendan
 
Only where there is an admission of liability by an employer can the PIAB make an assessment. This is done on a "without prejudice" basis and in any subsequent court proceedings liability can be contested.

If the employer consents and admit liability, even after full assessment and an award is decided, they can refuse to agree to the amount awarded and it collapses, and the complainant can get authorisation to start legal proceedings if they wish
In any future court proceedings the employer can refuse to accept liability even if they have done so at PIAB stage (as above)
 
Tintagel said:
.....but if it takes months for them to start your claim and if the respondent does not have to engage nor accept their findings what is the point of having the PIAB?
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Because if the respondent is clearly liable and there's no realistic way of getting out of it, the PIAB award will likely be significantly smaller and also not involve the weighty legal fees. So it's a win for a respondent where there's clear liability and they would be foolish not to accept it really - but some don't and are under no obligation to
 
Is there an insurer? It may be that you took case against an uninsured person who has no assets. They have nothing to lose, you will incur legal costs!
 
Going through this process now. So far, I am not impressed with the Injuries Board and the way they communicate. Everybody there seems to be dealing with my case rather than having one appointed person. I am not saying that my case is special but it would be nice to communicate with a person rather than "The injuries Board".
 
Odea said:
Going through this process now. So far, I am not impressed with the Injuries Board and the way they communicate.
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Six weeks on from my previous post and they still have not answered my emails to them. This follows on from my earlier correspondence where it was obvious nobody had actually read the content of that correspondence.

I do not know what is happening or what is going on with them.
 
Tintagel said:
....but if it takes months for them to start your claim and if the respondent does not have to engage nor accept their findings what is the point of having the PIAB?
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I don't think the Injuries Board do much for the first 90 days other than tick boxes.

Their administration seems very poor.

When someone submits a claim they should be addressing you in later correspondence, using your name, rather than "Dear Sir".

They seem to like using "one letter fits all" in their communications. This can be very annoying for the recipient because it suggests that they are not reading your correspondence.

Odea said:
I do not know what is happening or what is going on with them.
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Maybe they are hoping you will go away.
 
messyleo said:
All claims must go through PIAB - you need authorisation from them to proceed to the courts
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A family member is going through this process with them at the moment. They say it is even more stressful dealing with the Injuries Board than the accident that they had.
They are not responding to correspondence. When they eventually do it is a standard letter pulled from their system that has only been personalised in the first paragraph, then it turns in to a letter designed for a solicitor or similar in the rest of the paragraphs. The content does not make sense.
Correspondence is going missing also.

I wonder are they snowed under with work and unable to cope or is there something else going on?
 
Glad I'm not the only one who experienced this. I have to say, I think there's no excuse for leaving people with absolute radio silence for five or six months, Despite following up several times, when you're meant to really hear back after 90 days.

I'm not sure what's going on but it's certainly not a user-friendly process and to me just frustrates people even more who are already likely in a difficult situation. At least I suppose we shouldn't all take this personally or think we just had a one-off bad experience. It seems to be the norm.

I am not sure what the point of PIAB is really given respondents can just not engage with it at several points - even after a year or longer of the process. It just prolongs things even more which is in the respondent's interest
 
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