Some basic information about accident claims

If you are bringing a claim for compensation, then the law states that you must bring a case within a certain period of time. Generally this is two years from the date of injury or when you became aware that you have suffered injury but once again there are all sorts of pitfalls and exceptions and special rules for children and people suffering from various forms of disability.

If you are outside the Statute of Limitation’s period, then you may no longer bring a case. You should always get legal advice on this particular point. Over the years, we have come across numerous claimants who have made a mistake on this point and have lost the right to bring a good claim for compensation.

In order to bring a claim for compensation, your accident must have been caused by the fault of another person or third party. Very often it is not immediately obvious that another third party, for example an employer, is responsible for your accident. The law sets out very onerous duties on employers to protect their workers from accidents and sometimes it takes trained and experienced professionals to identity such cases.

The law in Ireland is that you must initially take your case to the Injuries Board. In a certain number of cases they will assess the amount of damages or compensation which you are entitled to but in quite a number of other cases, the Injuries Board will release the proceedings to be dealt with through the court system.