Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003

Position of respondent or respondents who do not accept assessment.

34

34.—If there are 2 or more respondents as respects a relevant claim and one or more but not all of them makes a statement of the kind referred to in section 32(1)(b) the following provisions have effect—

(a) the assessment made under section 20, though accepted by the other respondent or respondents, shall not be binding on the respondent or respondents who made such a statement (the “non-accepting respondent or respondents”),

(b) section 32 shall have effect as if the following subsections were substituted for subsection (3):

“(3) An authorisation under this section shall state that the claimant is authorised to, and operate to authorise the claimant to, bring proceedings in respect of his or her relevant claim against only the non-accepting respondent or respondents (within the meaning of section 34) and such an authorisation shall be in addition to any authorisation issued under section 14 to the claimant (but this subsection is subject to the following subsection).

(4) Subsection (3) does not prejudice the operation of section 41 (which relates to the application of section 16 of the Act of 1961 (satisfaction by one wrongdoer discharging the other wrongdoer or wrongdoers)) and, accordingly, the proceedings authorised by that subsection to be brought—

(a) shall cease to be maintainable if the amount or amounts specified in an order to pay issued by the Board in respect of the relevant claim are paid to the claimant, or

(b) if only a portion of the amount or amounts specified in such an order to pay is paid to the claimant, shall be maintainable in respect of only the balance outstanding.”.