Dr. Neil Walker:

Yes, and in fact, one of the things that perhaps ought to be more widely known - although the Injuries Board will not be able to say it, we will say it - is that if the majority of the Injuries Board awards were accepted, there would be no incentive to bring a solicitor along. They would just take a cut from whatever is awarded. There should be no need to bring a solicitor in, but the reason that people do so is because many of them are keeping their options open of going on to litigate afterwards or at least knowing that they have a very good chance of doing better than the Injuries Board award, not because of a clever solicitor, but because that is what the courts are doing because they think there is 12 years of inflation. However, the problem is that the level of awards set 12 years ago is still two to three times higher than the current British awards. There are a range of awards, but the top of the British range is generally lower than the bottom of the Irish range. That 300% factor is like comparing the middle of the ranges.