Payouts by the State Claims Agency (SCA), driven by awards in catastrophic injury and H1N1 Flu Vaccination cases, increased by 34 per cent to €368.8 million last year.
The 2021 State Claims Agency (SCA) annual report showed the potential liability to the State from catastrophic personal injury actions alone increased by €289.9 million to €2.42 billion.
Overall, the State’s potential liability from all claims climbed by €498 million overall to €4.53 billion in 2021.
The report added the State's potential liability from claims “continues to increase significantly year on year”. The potential liability of €4.53 billion concerns 11,408 claims on hand at the end of 2021.
The estimated liability from clinical claims is €3.41 billion and €1.12 billion from general claims.
The report revealed the SCA paid out €368.8 million in awards and settlements last year - an increase of €80.9 million on the €287.9 million paid out in 2020.
The SCA resolved 4,100 claims in 2021.
Clinical claims
One of the drivers to the €368.8 million payout was the €35.8 million increase in clinical claims, which was mainly due to settlements in catastrophic injury claims, with a small number of very large settlements made during the year.
The report stated the €45 million increase in general claims was due mainly to an increase in mass action payments. In particular, payouts in response to personal injury claims from the H1N1 Flu Vaccination.
The report also showed the number of live claims by ‘slopping out’ prisoners reduced from 1,852 at the start of last year to 934 at year-end.
The SCA has a ‘scheme of settlement’ in place after a 2019 Supreme Court judgement in the ‘lead case’ found that the plaintiff, Gary Simpson, should be paid €7,500.
Also, the number of claims on hand by ex-residents of various mothers and baby homes more than doubled last year, increasing from 55 to 136 at year-end.
The allegations included that the ex-residents suffered physical, verbal and emotional abuse, and also that their natural rights were affected due to false birth certificates allegedly being issued.
The report also confirmed the SCA had 340 claims against the State’s CervicalCheck programme at the end of 2021 - an increase of 106 on the 234 claims on hand at the end of 2020.
The 340 total includes 68 psychological injury claims from members of the families of the women concerned.
Forty-two CervicalCheck claims were concluded during 2021, bringing the number of concluded claims to 64.
Expert witnesses
Last year, the SCA’s legal and other costs totalled €117.8 million, which was a marginal increase on the €116.8 million paid out in 2020.
The SCA's costs included €4.99 million paid out to expert witnesses to provide reports and court evidence in personal and property damage cases.
The SCA's legal bill would have been far higher but for work by the SCA’s Legal Costs Unit, which deals with third-party legal costs of the State.
The report also showed lawyers for plaintiffs in 178 clinical claims claimed €49.9 million in legal costs.
However, the third-party lawyers agreed to settle the costs at €30.3 million - a legal cost saving of €19.6 million, or 39.3 per cent.
In relation to State Tribunals of Inquiry, the report showed that the Legal Costs Unit dealt with 12 claims by lawyers for third parties seeking €6.5 million, which was reduced by 51 per cent to €3.2 million.
If the SCA's Legal Costs Unit is unable to agree with third-party counsels on the costs, the matter is determined by the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator.
Last year, the bill to the SCA in resolving and managing claims stood at €486.5 million - a 20 per cent increase on the 2020 total of €404 million.
The report stated that although clinical claims make up 32 per cent of overall claims, they comprise 75 per cent of the overall estimated liability.
The report added this is primarily due to the higher level of settlements and awards associated with clinical negligence claims and the very high level of settlements in the resolution of infant cerebral palsy and other catastrophic injury claims.
