Mr. Conor Faughnan:

The Injuries Board was originally conceived as a lawyer-free zone, so there would be no legal costs because there is no question as to liability. I have rammed the back of your car and you have an injury. I have no dispute in this. All we need to establish is the appropriate level of financial compensation. For no-fault cases it was envisaged that there would never be a lawyer involved. I am not sure if it was the Law Society or an individual but, in any case, a case was taken disputing this and insisting that a client could bring his or her solicitor if he or she wished. That case happened in the opening months of the Injuries Board's existence and was successful in the Supreme Court, which found that if a person wants to bring a solicitor with him or her, he or she must be allowed to. The Injuries Board's response to that was to state that one can bring one's solicitor if one wishes but that in a no-fault case the position is that legal representation is not needed and if one wishes to bring a solicitor, it is one's prerogative to do so but is also at one's own expense because there are no legal costs incurred in the Injuries Board. That is its position. However, as I said previously, the fix to this is to take away the incentive to ignore the Injuries Board. The reason people ignore the Injuries Board is that there are more goodies available elsewhere. One can go and haggle with the insurance company-----