The Formal Notice, the 90 days and the respondent charge

The letter

The letter is from the Injuries Resolution Board (the statutory name is the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, and people still say PIAB: one body, three names, explained on the Board page). It is called a Formal Notice and it is sent under section 13 of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003 as amended. It tells you that a named person has applied to the Board for an assessment of a personal injury claim and that the application names you as a person responsible. A copy of the claimant's medical report comes with it.

The Board is not a court and it has not decided anything. It has received an application, checked that it is complete, and done what the Act requires: served notice on each respondent and asked a question. The Board's responding to a claim page describes the letter from the Board's side and is the page to read beside this one.

The 90 days

The Board's pages give a respondent 90 days from the issue date of the Formal Notice to reply; section 13 of the Act refers to the period specified in the notice, and 90 days is the period the Board specifies. The date is on the letter. Count from it, not from the day the letter arrived.

The reply is made on the consent form the Board sends with the notice, or through the Board's online service for respondents, and it must reach the Board within the period. The Board timeline works out the date from the one on your letter and shows what follows it.

The four options

Consenting to assessment means the Board does what it does: reads the claimant's medical report, arranges its own medical examination where it thinks one is needed, takes the vouched expenses, and assesses the damages with regard to the Personal Injuries Guidelines, on the assumption that the respondent is fully liable. Section 20 of the Act requires that assumption. The Board does not hear evidence on who was responsible and does not decide it. The assessment guide explains how a figure is reached.

Consenting to mediation means an independent Board mediator, usually by telephone through separate calls with each side, tries to bring you and the claimant to a written agreement. There is no extra fee. Either side can leave at any stage without consequence, what is said is confidential, and a signed agreement has a 10-day cooling-off period in which either side may withdraw in writing; if neither does, the Board issues an Order to Pay. In 2025, 54% of the Board's mediations ended in agreement, in about 3 months on average, the Board's figures on the figures register. The Board's mediation page and the mediation guide describe it.

Declining means the Board issues an Authorisation and the claimant may issue court proceedings against you. The Board's involvement ends there. What declining does not do is end the claim, or make it cheaper: a litigated motor injury claim cost €66,100 on average in the first half of 2025 by the Central Bank's figures, of which €26,752 was legal costs, and took 4.7 years, against the Board's average of about 9 months from consent to an assessment. In 2025, 69% of respondents consented.

Silence is consent

Section 14 of the Act deems a respondent who does not reply within the period to have consented to an assessment. The Board then proceeds as if you had ticked the first box, on the claimant's documents, and sends you the Notice of Assessment when it is made. The charge remains payable, and the Board may decline to assess where it is not paid, deciding case by case.

So the 90 days are not a period in which nothing happens if you do nothing. They are the period in which you choose, and after which the choice is made for you.

Not an admission

Section 16 of the Act says it plainly: consenting to an assessment, not consenting, or failing to reply is not an admission of liability. The claim has to be put somewhere, and the Act puts it at the Board first; consenting lets the Board put a figure on it, nothing more. If you consent and the figure is one you can accept, the claim ends there. If you consent and reject the figure, or the claimant rejects it, the question of who was responsible, and whether the claimant contributed to the injury, goes to a court as if the Board had never been involved. Nothing you say on the consent form is evidence of fault.

The charge: €1,200

A respondent who consents, or is deemed to consent, pays the Board's respondent charge. For a Formal Notice issued from 1 December 2025 it is €1,200, set by S.I. No. 557/2025; before that date it was €1,050. One charge covers both assessment and mediation where you consent to both. It is the Board's fee for the service, and it is not an award, a deposit or a sum that goes to the claimant.

Your insurer deals with it

The Board recommends that a respondent notify their insurer on receiving a Formal Notice, and in most cases the insurer then deals with the Board on the respondent's behalf: it returns the consent form, pays the charge, considers the medical report, decides whether to accept an assessment and, if it comes to it, instructs solicitors. A motor insurer does this for a driver, an employer's liability insurer for an employer, a public liability insurer for a shop or a landlord, and a household insurer, where the policy covers it, for a dog owner. The guide to shops, landlords, employers and dog owners covers each.

Tell the insurer the day the letter arrives, send it the notice and the medical report, and let it answer the Board. Most policies require notification of a claim within a short time, and the 90 days are the insurer's to use as well as yours. If you have no insurer, or the policy does not cover the claim, the choices and the charge are yours, and a solicitor would weigh them with you.

What follows consent

Once the Board has your consent, or the period has run, section 49 gives it 9 months to make the assessment, extendable by up to 6 months on written notice with reasons; beyond that, only with the claimant's written consent, failing which an Authorisation issues. The Board's own average is about 9 months from consent.

The Notice of Assessment then goes to both sides. The claimant has 28 days to accept in writing, and silence on the claimant's side is rejection (section 31(1)). You have 21 days, and silence on your side is acceptance (section 31(2)). That asymmetry is worth holding on to: a respondent who does nothing in the 21 days has accepted the figure.

Where you accept and the claimant rejects, section 51A of the Act applies in court: if the court awards no more than the assessment, no order for costs can be made in the claimant's favour, and you are deemed to have tendered the assessment on the date you accepted it, which exposes the claimant to your costs from that date. In 2025, 47% of assessments were accepted. The accept or reject guide explains the rule from both sides, and the accept or reject tool walks through it.

The whole shape

Where this leaves you

The date on the letter starts the 90 days. The Board timeline takes that date and shows each period that follows, so that you and your insurer see the same calendar the Board does.