Principles and Practice of Assessing Damages for Personal Injury and Wrongful Death in Ireland

In this paper, the principles underlying the assessment of damages in Ireland are set out by reference to landmark statutes and precedents. The focus of the paper, however, is on how damages in Ireland are computed in practice, highlighting the assumptions to which the quantum of damages is most sensitive and discussing the assumptions that are more debatable. In particular, we discuss and analyse the sensitivity of the lump sum to future mortality improvements,  the discount rate(s), and taxation. The paper will be circulated a week in advance and comments to the author are most welcome. [A final version of the paper will feature as a chapter in a forthcoming book on how damages are assessed around the world by Emerald Press/Elsevier, edited by Professor Robert Thornton, Lehigh University (US), and Jack Ward, The National Association of Forensic Economics (US).]