19 June 2024
Compulsory Court Approval of Minor Settlements
Compulsory Court approval of Minor Settlements
was a recommendation from the Gillen Review of Civil Justice published in
2017.
Recommendation 34 –
“ Legislation be taken forward to compel the
requirement for court approval for all legal cases involving a settlement or
award of damages to minors” .
The Department of Justice conducted a
Consultation in 2021 on this issue and the majority of consultees were in
support of legislation being introduced, including the Law Society.
The Minister of Justice indicted her support for legislative intervention on
this issue.
The Department of Justice commenced development
of legislation and looked in particular at how a statutory duty to enforce
court approval might be enforced. The Society has been informed that the latter
work has highlighted a number of significant legislative and practical
complexities. Such complexities include a perceived unfair imposition on the
parent of an injured child to seek court approval as they would be subject to a
sanction for non-compliance, resource cost to monitor and enforce compliance,
how to identify unapproved settlements and which authority should take
enforcement action.
It is very unfortunate that as a result of the
above complexities being identified by the Department of Justice, that the
Minister has announced that she will not bring forward legislation for
mandatory court approval of compensation settlements for children, in this
mandate. The Minister has stated that she reached this conclusion having
considered the lack of evidence of harm to children in practice, the extent to
which it is appropriate for the state to intervene in private legal matters and
family life, and the lack of a clear, feasible and proportionate enforcement
mechanism.
The Law Society supports court approval for all
minor settlements and will urge the Justice Minister to find solutions to the
complexities identified so that legislation may be approved as soon as
possible.