How an Injuries Board application pauses the clock

Nearly every personal injury claim in Ireland must go to the Injuries Resolution Board before it can go to court, and the Board's process takes months. If the two-year limit kept running through it, people would lose claims while waiting. Section 50 of the 2003 Act stops that. This guide sets out what it says, what counts as an application, who it covers, and works through the dates with examples.

What section 50 says

Section 50 of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003 says that in reckoning any period of time for the purposes of a limitation period that applies to the bringing of proceedings, the period beginning on the making of an application under section 11 in relation to the relevant claim and ending six months from the date of issue of an Authorisation shall be disregarded.

Disregarded, not reset. The two years under section 3 of the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991 run from the accident or the later date of knowledge, stop on the day the application is made, and start again six months after the Authorisation issues, with whatever was left.

The pause has three parts: when it starts, when it ends, and who it covers.

When it starts: a signed application

The pause begins on the making of an application under section 11. Since the 2019 amendment of the Act, an application is made for this purpose only when it is signed by the claimant and carries the confirmations section 11(3A) lists. A form submitted online without the signed declaration, or an application the Board is holding because the medical report has not arrived, is not yet made.

The Board's making-a-claim page sets out what a complete application is: the Board's form, the medical report on the Board's Medical Assessment Form (Form B) from the treating doctor, identity, and the fee (€45 online, €90 by post). The Board writes to acknowledge the application and the date on that acknowledgement is the date the pause starts. Keep it.

The practical point is that the medical report is on the critical path. Where the two years are close, the application is made as soon as the report is in hand, and the application date is confirmed with the Board rather than assumed.

When it ends: six months after the Authorisation

The pause ends six months from the date the Board issues an Authorisation. An Authorisation is the Board's document releasing the claim to the courts, and it issues in several situations:

• the respondent declines to consent to an assessment within the 90 days;
• the Board decides not to assess the claim, for example where it considers the injuries unsuitable for assessment on documents;
• the Board does not assess within the nine months under section 49, or the extended period, and the claimant has not consented to it continuing;
• the claimant rejects the assessment, or does not accept it in writing within 28 days under section 30 and section 31; or
• the respondent rejects the assessment within its 21 days.

Where both sides accept the assessment, or where mediation ends in an agreement that survives the ten-day cooling-off, an Order to Pay issues instead and no Authorisation is needed. The clock then does not matter.

The six months run from the date on the Authorisation, not from the date you received it. The Authorisation states its date.

Who it covers: the respondents named

The pause applies to the respondents named in the application. If you named the other driver, the clock against the other driver is paused. If it later turns out that a second driver, the vehicle's owner or an employer should also have been named, the clock against them was never paused and has been running since the accident. A respondent added to the application later has their own disregarded period from the date they were added.

This is why the Board's form asks for every person you consider responsible, and why a solicitor names each possible respondent at the outset rather than the obvious one. A claim against someone never named at the Board has no pause, and may be out of time before anyone notices.

Worked examples

The examples use the ordinary two years from the accident date. Where the date of knowledge is later, the two years run from that instead, and the time-limit guide explains how.

Example 1: an application three months after the accident

Without section 50 the last safe day would have been 9 January 2028. With it, 30 September 2028.

Example 2: an assessment made and rejected

Example 3: an application close to the end

The pause saves a claim made with days to spare, but it leaves days, not months, after the Authorisation. A solicitor would issue proceedings well inside them.

Example 4: a respondent added later

The second respondent's date is six months earlier than the first's, because the clock against them ran for six months before they were named.

The section 8 letter is separate

The one-month notice under section 8 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 has nothing to do with section 50. It is served within one month of the accident, before any Board application, and a Board application does not satisfy it or excuse it. The section 8 guide explains the letter.

Children and the pause

Time does not run against a person under 18, so a next friend applying for a child does not usually need the pause. It matters for a young adult claiming close to twenty for a childhood injury, and the children guide explains the rule.

How long the pause tends to last

The length of the pause depends on the Board's process. The respondent has 90 days to consent. The Board must assess within nine months of consent under section 49, extendable by up to six months on written notice. The Board's claimant FAQ says assessments average about nine months from consent, and mediation about three. The how long guide puts the periods together, and the Board timeline planner draws them from your application date, with the clock pause alongside.

Whatever the length, the arithmetic is the same: the days left on the day you applied are the days you have, starting six months after the Authorisation. See the Board page for the Board's process in one place.

Where this leaves you

You know that a signed application pauses the two years, that the pause ends six months after the Authorisation, that it covers only the respondents named, and that what was left when you applied is what is left when it restarts. The time-limit checker takes your accident date, your application date and your Authorisation date and gives the last safe day, with a calendar reminder.