Children, capacity and late personal injury claims

A child has been injured, or you are claiming for someone who cannot manage their own affairs, or you have realised late that an injury was caused by something that happened years ago. In each case the ordinary two years do not work in the ordinary way. This guide sets out the rules for children, the rules for capacity, how the date of knowledge can make a claim late but not out of time, and why a solicitor is plainly the right step in each.

Time does not run until 18

Section 3 of the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991 gives two years for a personal injury claim. Section 49 of the Statute of Limitations 1957 says that where the person injured was under a disability when the cause of action accrued, the period does not begin to run until the disability ends. Being under 18 is a disability for this purpose.

So for a child, the two years start on the eighteenth birthday. A child injured at seven has until the day before their twentieth birthday. A child injured at seventeen and a half has the same: two years from 18, not six months from the accident.

Few families wait. The evidence is fresher now, the child's recovery can be watched and reported, and the money, once approved by a court, is held for the child. But the rule means that a parent who did nothing at the time has not lost the child's claim, and that a young adult who was injured as a child can still bring it.

The next friend

A child cannot bring proceedings in their own name. An adult, usually a parent or guardian, brings the claim on the child's behalf as the next friend. The next friend makes the application to the Injuries Resolution Board (still searched as PIAB; see the glossary), signs the forms, gives the instructions and, if the claim goes to court, is named in the proceedings as the person suing on the child's behalf. The child is the claimant; the next friend is the person acting for them.

The Board's making-a-claim page and its claimant FAQ set out how an application is made for a child: the child's details and the next friend's, the medical report on the Board's form from the treating doctor, and identity for both. The fee, €45 online, is the same.

The one-month letter under section 8 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 is served by the next friend on the child's behalf. The section 8 guide explains it.

Court approval: section 35

An adult can accept a Board assessment by writing to the Board within 28 days, and an Order to Pay follows. A child cannot. Section 35 of the 2003 Act says that where the claimant is under 18 or lacks capacity, acceptance of an assessment has no effect unless a court approves it.

The approval is an application to the court, usually the court in which the figure would fall (District Court up to €15,000, Circuit Court up to €60,000, High Court above). The judge reads the medical evidence and the assessment and decides whether the figure is in the child's interest. The judge can approve it, or refuse, in which case the parties go back to the Board or the claim proceeds. Where it is approved, the Order to Pay issues and the money is usually paid into court and held until the child is 18, with the court able to release sums for the child's benefit in the meantime.

The same rule applies to a settlement reached outside the Board, with an insurer directly or in mediation: a child's settlement needs a court's approval, and an insurer dealing with a next friend knows it. The accept-or-reject guide explains the adult process, and the mediation guide explains how an agreement is reached and the ten-day cooling-off.

This is the first reason a solicitor is the usual route for a child's claim. The court application is a court application, with papers, an affidavit and a hearing, and the next friend has to satisfy a judge that the figure is right. A solicitor's costs for the approval are usually dealt with as part of the approval itself.

Capacity

Section 49 of the 1957 Act also stops time running while a person is of unsound mind, in the Act's words. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 changed the law's language and its approach to capacity, and how the two Acts fit together in a given case is a question on which a solicitor should advise.

Two practical points stand. Where the injured person cannot manage their own affairs, whether because of the injury itself (a brain injury, for example) or a condition that predated it, time may not be running against them, and a claim that looks out of time may not be. And section 35 of the 2003 Act applies in the same way as for a child: an assessment or a settlement for a person lacking capacity needs a court's approval before it binds them.

A claim for a person lacking capacity is brought by a next friend or, where one has been appointed, by a decision-making representative or the committee of a ward. Which of those applies is for a solicitor.

The date of knowledge and late claims

A claim can also be later than two years from the accident without being out of time, because the two years run from the date of knowledge where that is later. Section 2 of the 1991 Act defines it as the date the person first knew that they had been injured, that the injury was significant, that it was attributable to the act or omission complained of, and who the defendant was. Knowledge includes what the person could reasonably have found out, including with expert advice.

For a child, the date of knowledge question rarely arises, because time does not run until 18 in any case. For an adult it is the main route by which a claim that looks late is not: a hearing loss diagnosed years into a job, a condition attributed to treatment only when a second doctor says so, a disc injury explained by a scan months after a fall. The time-limit guide sets out the facts the section requires and the limits of the rule.

The date of knowledge is not a discretion. A person who knew the facts at the time does not get more time because the injury turned out worse than expected. And outside the date of knowledge, the children's rule, the capacity rule and the Board pause under section 50 of the 2003 Act, the courts have no general power to extend the two years in a personal injury action. A claim that is late on every one of those counts is out of time, and an insurer will plead it.

The Board pause still applies

Where a next friend applies to the Board for a child, section 50 pauses the clock from the signed application until six months after the Authorisation, in the same way as for an adult. For a child the pause rarely matters, because the two years have not started. It matters where a claim is brought by a young adult close to twenty, or by an adult whose date of knowledge was recent. The Board pause guide gives worked examples.

What is different about a child's claim at the Board

The Board's process for a child runs as it does for an adult, with the court approval added at the end. The respondent has 90 days to consent, the Board assesses on the documents within nine months of consent, and a Notice of Assessment issues. The difference is in the medical evidence. A child's recovery is often watched for longer before a report is written, because the Board assesses on the report it has and a court approving the figure wants to know the prognosis. Scarring in particular is reported once it has matured, as the dog bite guide explains.

The Board's Annual Report 2025 does not break out awards to children, and this site does not estimate them. The figures page carries what the Board publishes.

Why a solicitor

The Board says a solicitor is not required to make an application, and for an adult with a clear claim that is true. For a child or a person lacking capacity, three things make a solicitor plainly the right step: the next friend acts for someone else and is answerable for it; nothing binds the child without a court's approval, and the approval is a court application; and the questions of capacity and of the date of knowledge are questions of law on which the answer decides whether there is a claim at all. The Courts Service explains the courts' procedures, and the claim-without-a-solicitor guide sets out where the Board's own answers stop.

Where this leaves you

You know that time does not run against a child until 18, that a next friend claims on the child's behalf, that no assessment or settlement binds a child or a person lacking capacity without a court's approval, and that the date of knowledge can make an adult's claim later than the accident without making it out of time. A solicitor is plainly the right step here. The time-limit checker gives the dates for a child, for a later date of knowledge and for a Board application, from your own.