WEBINAR: The Northern Ireland Personal Injury Discount Rate – Expert Panel Discussion

The Insurance Institute of Northern Ireland is happy to announce that their next webinar will cover the personal injury discount rate.

Learning objectives

By attending this event delegates will be:

• Aware of the history and reasoning behind the Personal Injury Discount Rate
• Able to understand how the Personal Injury Discount Rate operates in practice
• Appreciate the impact proposed changes to the Northern Ireland Personal Injury Rate will have on claim settlement

Panel members include:

Alastair Ross

Alastair Ross - Assistant Director, Head of Public Policy (Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland)

Alastair is a member of the Public Affairs team responsible for the ABI’s engagement with the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and their respective governments. He joined the ABI in March 2016 from Pinsent Masons LLP where he was Director of Public Policy for the law firm. Prior to that Alastair was a Government Relations Executive at HBOS and also worked in PR and newspapers. He has a degree in History and Politics from the University of Aberdeen, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, a trustee of the Children’s Parliament and of the David Hume Institute, and an alumnus of the US Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Programme. He can be found on Twitter @AlastairRoss

Catriona McCorry

Catriona is an associate in DAC Beachcroft (N.Ireland) LLP. She has over 10 years’ experience advising clients across a range of sectors including medical malpractice, professional risk, personal injury, and dispute resolution. Her key clients include London market medical malpractice specialist insurers and Willis Towers Watson for whom she handles a caseload of claims against local solicitors under the Law Society’s Master Policy in Northern Ireland.

Catriona has been recognised by Legal 500 as a ‘rising star’ in personal injury and professional negligence.

In addition, Catriona is a member of the Northern Ireland Medico Legal Society and regularly participates and runs workshops for the Insurance Institute Northern Ireland. Catriona served as a member of the Law Society Northern Ireland and DAC Beachcroft (N.Ireland) working party groups in response to the Personal Injury Discount rate consultation.

Ed Butler

Ed is currently a Senior Vice President and Claims Advocate with Lockton working from their Belfast office and has responsibility for the delivery of their claims service throughout Ireland. He is an Associate of CII and has been working in the insurance industry for over 30 years involved in claims management in both insurance companies and brokers during that time. His experience has been gained in many roles including in-house litigation handling for insurers, claims investigation, settlement negotiation and policy reviews on difficult or contentious claims issues.

In addition, Ed has been involved with several clients who have unfortunately had fatal accidents and assisted them in coordinating their responses to both the Civil and Criminal litigation.

Louise Butler

Louise is a partner at DAC Beachcroft based at their Belfast office, were she leads the Complex Injury team. A graduate of the University of Sheffield, Louise has over 20 years’ experience working almost exclusively for insurers and self-insured clients in Northern Ireland. Louise is a member of the CII and co-opted member of the Law Society of NI’s Future of the Profession Committee.

Mr Justice McAlinden

The Honourable Mr Justice McAlinden is a High Court Judge who has served since being sworn into office on 15 June 2018.

Having graduated in Law from Queen’s University Belfast in 1985, he was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in the same year, working as a junior barrister until 2011 when he took silk and became Queen’s Counsel (QC).

In 2014 Mr Justice McAlinden was elected Chairman of the Bar Council of Northern Ireland, serving for two years. Over the course of his distinguished career Mr Justice McAlinden specialised in personal injury work, for Plaintiffs and Defendants and public enquiry work for various Health Trusts. He also represented Trusts and acted for the Coroner in various high-profile inquests. Mr Justice McAlinden was also a Legal Member of the Mental Health Appeal Tribunal from 2012, a role which he gave up on appointment to the High Court.