Moving towards Periodic Payment Orders in medical negligence claims
The settlement of recent medical negligence cases suggests that the State and patients alike are willing to embrace the Periodic Payment Order (PPO) or equivalent in circumstances where there is as yet no statutory system for the making of such payments as part of compensation.
In April 2010 the High Court approved the settlement of an action taken by a 15 year old boy with cerebral palsy against the State arising from the circumstances of his birth. The State offered to pay the sum of €1.6 million to the child, and a system of phased payments aimed at providing the child with life long care will also be introduced. In adjourning the case until October 2011 Mr Justice Quirke said he hoped that a system of phased payments would be in place by then. He also said a system of index-linked periodic payments is preferable to the current system whereby a lump sum is paid to plaintiffs who are usually made wards of court and have the money invested on their behalf.
In May 2010 the High Court again approved the settlement of an action taken by an 8 year old girl paralysed during spinal surgery. In that case the Court approved the payment of €2 million. Under the settlement the girl may return to court when she reaches 18 to seek further compensation on grounds including future loss of earnings. Although this case did not involve the prospect of period payment it does illustrate the alternatives that can be agreed where it may be felt that adequate provision for the victim of a catastrophic injury may not be best provided for under the current system of lump sum compensation.
Ciaran O'Rorke, head of the Healthcare department, is a member of the Working Group on Medical Negligence established by the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, and chaired by Mr Justice John Quirke. The Group is looking at reform of the way in which medical negligence actions are conducted in this jurisdiction and one of the major issues it is looking at is the introduction of Periodic Payment Orders in catastrophic injury cases.