Lawyers hit out at ‘dysfunctional’ criminal injuries compensation scheme

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal is “dysfunctional” and failing to provide timely assistance to victims, solicitors have told the Irish Examiner.

An unnamed solicitor told the paper that the Tribunal’s limited budget was leading to major delays.

The solicitor said: “It has around a €4m budget each year and, remarkably, that’s almost exactly what it pays out, yet there are not the same number or type of cases each year.

“Occasionally, there would be cases worth a million euro or more — where someone has, maybe, suffered a life-changing brain injury — but one big case like that would eat too big a hole in the annual allocation, so it gets put off and put off, until it fits into some year’s budget.

“They’ll act quicker on the smaller cases — the broken nose and dental work — and the bigger cases get left behind. That’s a dysfunctional way to operate. It’s an area of the law that’s completely neglected.”

Barrister Maria McDonald, a founding member of the Victims’ Rights Alliance, told the Irish Examiner that she shared concerns about delays in processing applications to the Tribunal.

Ms McDonald said: “Recent case law illustrates the need for a review of the tribunal’s procedures to ensure that victims receive compensation in a prompt manner, and in accordance with constitutional justice.

“The procedures for obtaining compensation, and the documentation which victims must provide, should not be unduly onerous. If the procedure is not clear and concise, it will cause secondary victimisation to victims of crime, contrary to the EU Victims Directive and the recently enacted Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act 2017.”

In 2017, the Tribunal received 181 applications for compensation and paid out in respect of 31 of those.

The total compensation paid was €3.97 million, with the largest pay-out totalling €905,000.