Mr. Stuart Gilhooly:

I will run the Chairman through a typical claim. Where a car accident occurs, for example, the claimant will normally attend a solicitor's office and, once a medical report is obtained from the client's treating doctor, what is called a form A is filled out. With the medical report and fee, that form is sent to the Injuries Board. The Injuries Board would then write to the respondent, that is, the insurance company, and ask it whether it wanted to go through that process. From my own experience, approximately 70% or 80% will go through the Injuries Board process. The ones that do not go through are those in which liability is clearly an issue or where, bizarrely and for reasons that are not clear to me, they just do not because insurance companies have got ideas about them.