The Board's assessment: the 9 months, and how a figure is reached

If the respondent consents to assessment, or stays silent and is deemed to consent, the Injuries Resolution Board puts a figure on your claim. This guide explains how that figure is reached, what the Act says the Board must and must not do, and how long it has. It uses the Act's own sections and the Board's own FAQ, and it stops where the Board stops: at a figure, not at a verdict.

Assessed on the documents, with no hearing

An assessment is a paper exercise. The Board's FAQ says the claim is assessed on the medical report, the Board's own medical examination where it arranges one, and the records of your expenses. Nobody gives evidence, nobody is cross-examined, and you are not asked to attend anything other than a medical examination if the Board arranges one.

That has two consequences. The first is that what is in the file is all the Board has: a thin medical report produces a thin assessment. The guide on Form B explains what the doctor records. The second is that disputes about what happened, who was to blame, and whether you contributed to your own injury have no place in the process at all.

Full liability is assumed

Section 20(1) of the 2003 Act defines an assessment as the amount of damages that would follow on the assumption that the respondent is fully liable. The Board does not ask whether that assumption is true. It does not reduce the figure for contributory negligence, such as a seat belt not worn or a helmet not used. It does not decide anything about fault.

So the Board's figure is what the claim may be worth if liability were never in question. If the respondent would contest liability in court, that is a reason an insurer may decline the Board in the first place, and it is one of the facts a tool cannot see when the figure arrives.

The Guidelines for general damages

Section 20(5), as amended by the Judicial Council Act 2019, requires the Board to have regard to the Personal Injuries Guidelines when assessing general damages: the damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity. The Guidelines were adopted by the Judicial Council on 6 March 2021 and apply to claims not assessed by the Board before 24 April 2021.

The Guidelines are organised by part of the body and by severity, and for the commonest injuries the bracket depends on the recovery period in the medical report. The Board places the injury in a section, finds the bracket, and chooses a point within it on the Guidelines' own considerations: the severity, the treatment, the effect on work and daily life, the prognosis. Where there is more than one injury, the Guidelines say the Board takes the dominant injury and adjusts upward for the rest, never adding brackets together. The cap for the most catastrophic injuries is €550,000.

Every figure in the Guidelines is the 2021 figure. The Judicial Council approved a 16.7% increase in December 2024, but it needs a resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas, which has not been moved; the changes page tracks it. The guide on the Guidelines explained covers the structure, and the injury checker shows the Guidelines' bracket for an injury described like yours, drawn to scale, never a figure for your claim.

Special damages, vouched

General damages are for the injury itself. Special damages are the money the injury has cost you, and the Board adds them where they are vouched:

The Board's FAQ says expenses can be sent after the application is made, so the file can be added to as the costs come in. The special damages worksheet lists the headings, and the guide on loss of earnings, expenses and care goes through them. The Board's Annual Report 2025 release gives a median award of €14,020 in 2025, and €12,000 excluding special damages; both are dated on the figures register and neither is a figure for anyone's claim.

Recoverable benefits

Under the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2013, the respondent must repay the Department of Social Protection for welfare paid to you because of the injury, such as Injury Benefit or Illness Benefit. The Board asks the Department for the figure, and the Notice of Assessment sets it out. The repayment is the respondent's; it is listed so that both sides know what the respondent's total liability under the assessment is. Your loss of earnings claim should still be made in full; the Board handles the offset. The guide on Injury Benefit and Disablement Benefit explains the benefits themselves.

The 9 months

Section 49 sets the clock. The Board must make the assessment within 9 months of the date it receives the respondent's consent, or, where the respondent did not reply, 9 months from the end of the notice period (section 49(2) and (3)). The Board's FAQ says assessments average about 9 months from consent, so the statutory period and the Board's practice are close.

The 6-month extension

Section 49(4) and (5) let the Board extend only where, because of the particular circumstances of the claim, an assessment within 9 months would not be possible or appropriate. It must give you written notice with reasons before the 9 months end, naming a date no more than 6 months after them. The usual reason is medical: the injury has not settled enough for a prognosis, and the Board is waiting for a further report or its own examination.

Beyond the extension

If the assessment is not made by the extended date, section 49(6) to (8) say an Authorisation issues, unless you have consented in writing to the Board continuing. You can give that consent and withdraw it. In other words, nobody can be kept in the Board's process beyond 15 months without agreeing to it.

Where the Board decides not to assess

The Board can also decline to assess a claim that is not suited to a paper process, such as one where the prognosis will not be clear for years, and issue an Authorisation instead. The Act allows this; the Board's FAQ describes it. An Authorisation is not a finding against the claim; it means the claim goes to court if you pursue it, and a solicitor would weigh the evidence at that point.

The Notice of Assessment

When the Board has its figure, it serves a Notice of Assessment on you and on the respondent. The notice sets out:

• The general damages, with regard to the Guidelines.
• The special damages the Board accepted as vouched.
• The recoverable benefits the respondent must repay to the Department.
• The fee and the reasonable cost of your medical report, which the Board's FAQ says are recoverable.

It also starts the last two periods. Under section 30 you have 28 days from service to say in writing whether you accept; silence is deemed rejection under section 31(1). The respondent has 21 days, and silence there is deemed acceptance under section 31(2). If both accept, an Order to Pay issues under section 38 with the standing of a court order; if either rejects, an Authorisation issues and section 51A on costs may apply.

Whether to accept depends on facts a tool cannot see. The Board's figure is binding on nobody until both sides accept it. The guide on accepting or rejecting within 28 days sets out both choices and what section 51A means in plain words; the Board's release says 47% of assessments were accepted in 2025.

Where this leaves you

The assessment is a figure reached on paper, on the assumption of full liability, with regard to the Guidelines, within a period the Act fixes. Most of what you can do while it runs is keep the file complete: further medical reports, receipts, evidence of earnings. The Board timeline planner takes the date of the respondent's consent and shows the end of the 9 months, the latest date an extension could reach, and the 28 days that follow the notice, as dates on a calendar. the Board page is the site's own page on the Board.