All work-related injury cases against employers will have to be submitted for assessment to the new Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) from midnight tonight.
The board has been set up to remove from the courts cases where liability is not disputed so as to reduce legal costs and the length of time processing such cases.
This morning, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, signed the order making the new board operational from midnight. From September the board is also due to start processing all road traffic and public liability claims.
The Law Society remains strongly opposed to the PIAB, saying it forces clients seeking compensation for personal injuries into a system that is designed to disadvantage them. The Society believes the board deprives injured parties of advocacy on their behalf.
Earlier this month, it emerged that the number of personal injury cases lodged with the Central Office of the High Court in May was up more than 80 per cent on the same period last year.
Some 1,786 personal injury cases were been lodged in the first 21 days of this month compared with about 900 in the same period last year, according to the Court Service.
The Tánaiste said the setting up of the PIAB marked a "watershed in the process of reforming the Irish insurance market."
She claimed that "certain vested interests" had sought to use "misinformation and scare tactics" to delay or prevent the introduction of the PIAB.
