Injury News » Child Injury Compensation
Child Injury Compensation
If your child suffers an injury in an accident for which they were not to blame, it may be possible for a parent or guardian to make a claim for child injury compensation on the child´s behalf. Children are not permitted to initiate their own legal action until the age of eighteen, by which time evidence of negligence may have disappeared and the memories of witnesses to your child´s accident faded. Furthermore, as it may be necessary to obtain child injury compensation to pay for medical care, it is in your best interests to discuss the circumstances of your child´s accident and their eligibility to child injury compensation with a solicitor on our Free Help Line at the earliest possible opportunity.
Posted: February 9th, 2022
At the Circuit Civil Court a judge has given his approval for a €40,000 personal injury compensation settlement for a 12-year-old schoolboy who tripped on metal strips inserted in a pedestrian way to prevent skateboarding from taking place.
After being tripped the boy fell and sustained injuries and scarring to his forehead. Justice Judge John O’Connor, at the Circuit Civil Court, was informed that the metal strips in question had been put in place to stop skateboarders using a decorative stone being used as a ramp. It occurred in Blessington, Co Wicklow.
The court was informed that, when the accident occurred in November 2012, three-year-old Eoin Fairbanks was walking along an area with decorative stones in place he fell over one of the metal strips, falling and hitting his head off a different metal strip.
The court was advised that Eoin, with an address at Burgage Manor Blessington, had been inflicted with a 3cm deep cut which has resulted in a scar persisting on his forehead. After the incident he was given medical attention at a nearby pharmacy prior to being taken to the emergency department at Tallaght Hospital. Here a medic closed his wound using a combination of glue and steri-strips.
Now 12-year-old Eoin took the legal action, via his father Dean Fairbanks, against Sistina Management Limited and Qualitas Property Partners Limited, both located in Dublin. Both companies had entered full defences to the claim.
Justice Presiding Judge O’Connor was informed that the defendants had proposed a compensation settlement offer of €40,000 for the young child. This information was made known to the Judge by way of an affidavit, provided by Ms Michelle Synott of Synott Lawline Solicitors for the plaintiff, that €40,000 compensation settlement offer was made and that she was recommending, on behalf of her client, that the court approve this.
Posted: September 11th, 2020
A toe injury sustained while playing footgolf has resulted in a €16,000 personal injury compensation award for an amateur goalkeeper at the Circuit Civil Court.
The legal action was taken by Stuart O’Dwyer of Glenhill Avenue, Finglas, Dublin 11, against Simon Rutledge of the White House pub restaurant, New Park, The Ward, Co Dublin in relation to the injury he sustained when
his right foot struck a metal stake which was hidden by long grass just off the 10th green at Mr Rutledge’s course.
Mr O’Dwyer, Leinster Senior League goalkeeper for Glasnevin FC, informed the Judge John O’Connor that he suffered the injury when he was trying to kick the ball out of the rough in a round of footgolf with his father on June 14, 2018.
The court was informed by Mr O’Dwyer’s legal representative, Barrister Laurence Masterson, that Mr Rutledge was not defended the claim. He added that judgment had been marked by the County Registrar against Mr Rutledge in the absence of an appearance in the case.
On the day of the game with his father he had kicked the ball off the 10th tee into very long grass. As he attempted to kick the ball onto the green his foot struck the metal spike that had been firmly placed in the ground and which was hidden by the grass.
Due to the collision with the spike, Mr O’Dwyer’s big toe was injured and he attended the emergency department of James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown afterwards. Here he was diagnosed a soft-tissue injury by
consultant in emergency medicine Dr JA McKeever.
The court was informed that Mr O’Dwyer, an amatuer goalkeeper in the Leinster Senior League with Glasnevin FC, had lost the nail on his big toe and he has a slight deformity in the shape of a small lump on the toe after the nail had grown back. In addition to this he had experienced extensive pain, discomfort and bruising in his toe. In the hospital his toe had been splinted with a buddy strap in the hospital where he had been provided with crutches.
Judge O’Connor said he felt compensation would fall in at the lower end of the Circuit Court jurisdiction and, as such, awarded Mr O’Dwyer €16,000 personal injury compensation legal costs against Mr Rutledge who was not in court, nor legally represented.
Posted: August 1st, 2020
A car crash that took place in 2017 has resulted in a 15-year old boy being awarded €26,000 compensation at the Circuit Civil Court.
Mr David Kearney, representing Abdul-Malik, informed the Judge that the boy suffered great trauma when it appeared to him that his friend had died in the same accident. However, this was not the case as his friend had just been knocked unconscious in the car crash.
The accident in question took place when the car that Abdul was travelling in with his family was struck by another car as it was passing them. Abdul-Malik, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, sustained neck and lower-back injuries. In addition to this the court was also informed that he is suffering with persistent post-traumatic stress disorder. Justice Judge John O’Connor was informed that that the boy was already vulnerable due to the traume his experience when his older brother was abducted during the Chechen-Russian conflict conflict.
Mr Kearney told Judge O’Connor the boy’s mother was not content with the €26,000 compensation settlement offer. A knee operation on an injury that took place, in Russia, since the accident could be definitively linked to the accident. Medical experts provided testimony stating that the most likely cause of the injury was a sporting accident.
Mr Kearney informed the judge that the settlement figure would have to be adjusted upwards if the injury was a result of the road traffic accident.
Judge O’Connor informed the boy’s mother that he could not take the knee injury into account without independent medical research to back this up. Following this the boy’s mother informed the court, through her legal counsel, that they were happy to accept the award.
Posted: May 18th, 2020
Former board chair of Scouting Ireland, Aisling Kelly, informed a room of senior volunteers from the organisation on December 10th, 2018, that there was a prospect of legal actions bring taken against the body in relation to “extensive, prolonged, and at times organised child sexual abuse”.
The them chair added that she feared such actions could “sink the organisation” if large numbers of abuse victims sought compensation from Scouting Ireland, the body that was formed from the merger of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) and the Scout Association of Ireland in 2004.
Her fears were founded on reports of massive compensation pay outs in cases such as these. The Irish Times has reported that, in recent years a single confidential settlement agreement resulted in Scouting Ireland paying over €100,000 to a man who had claimed he was sexually abused when he was a member of the CBSI as a child. Scouting Ireland has put aside €2.5 million to cover the costs of legal claims and cases from survivors. It has also set up a support fund to pay for private counselling for survivors.
Last Thursday a report in an inquiry conducted by child protection expert Ian Elliott outlined a thorough analysis of the scale of the historic abuse at the scouting organisations and described how the act failed to act in the interests of the young children.
Following the release of the report, Scouting Ireland issued a public apology to the victims and the chair of the organisation Adrian Tennant claimed that Since learning of the abuse scandal Scouting Ireland had sought to “own” responsibility for facing up to the past failings.
The report detailed how the culture of the former organisations were rife with “cronyism” and a lack of adequate governance. The result of all of this was a failure to make cases of child abuse known to the relevant authorities. It (the report) referred to Scouting Ireland as a “seriously dysfunctional organisation”, with “sex offenders dominating the leadership for decades”.
It also found a “systematic failure” of the organisations to maintain adequate records of reports of alleged abuse allegations.
Following the publication of the report. the Government is now considering whether a statutory inquiry into the past abuse is necessary. The report accounted for 356 alleged victims of historical abuse, and 275 alleged perpetrators, who primarily operated between the 1960s and 1990s.
In other jurisdictions, abuse involving scouting organisations have lead to massive financial settlement. Last February (2020), the Boys Scouts of America began bankruptcy proceeding as a result of legal actions related to law for alleged child abuse.
Posted: November 13th, 2019
Following suffering cut to hie eye on a pharmacy shelf a Co
Dublin two year-old boy has been awarded €22,000 personal injury compensation.
The court was told that Ross Pickering of Merrion Park, South Hill Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin, had been in Bradley’s Chemist with his mother on 14th July, 2014, when the accident in question happened.
Counsel for the Pickering family Barrister Samantha Cruess- Callaghan was representing the boy on the legal action he too via his mother Marie-Claire Greenan. She told the court that after the accident, Ross had been rushed to the Emergency Department of Crumlin Hospital for medical treatment.
The Judge was informed that physicians treated the cut on Ross’ right upper eyelid, measuring around three centimetres. The laceration had been cleaned using an antiseptic method and was found to be superficial. The child was reviewed again two weeks later to have his steri-strips taken, there was no bleeding or indications of infection to Ross’s injury at the time and the wound had healed properly. She stated that the child’s mother had been advised that if there had been any concerns nine months after the accident, then Ross could seek the opinion of a plastic surgeon.
During his one year-check up to review the cut to his eyelid with a Plastic and Reconstructive surgeon, it was recorded that Ross had a scar measuring 1cm by 3mm above his right eye, slightly red in colour and visible from a close distance. His opinion had been that the scar had still been immature and would go on healing during the next 18 months when it would turn white in colour.
The boy’s family was taking the legal action against Siofra Limited and L’oreal (UK) Limited trading as La Roche Posay as a result of the injuries he sustained in the accident.
On the day that the accident happened, the child had bent down to pick something up from the floor . However, when he had been getting back up he caught the lower of his right eye on a sharp item that was on a La Roche Posay display shelf.
Ms Cruess- Callaghan recommended the personal injury compensation settlement €22,000 that had been proposed. She stated that it was her belief that this figure represents the value of Ross’s case.
Judge O’ Connor gave his approval to the settlement proposal offered by Siofra Limited and L’oreal (Uk) Limited trading as La Roche Posay (third party).
Posted: July 25th, 2019
Dublin-based childcare group Hyde and Seek are bracing themselves for coming creche scandal compensation claims, government agency investigations and criminal convictions after an RTE Investigates report uncovered multiple cases of child maltreatment and breaches of childcare management legislation.
The report showed a range of illegal and unprofessional work practices in the four crechés owned and operated by the group. Ahead of the airing of the show one of the owners of Hyde and Seek, Anne Davy, has stepped down from frontline work with immediate effect.
This is not the first time that Ms Davy has found herself answering for breaches of childcare legislation as she was convicted in 2004 after her staff left a three-year-old boy on his own at a local playground. Following this, in 2007, she was convicted for breaching child care requirements including child to adult ratios and failing to keep adequate records. Following these convictions Davy’s company changed name on three separate occasions.
As part of the report, two undercover childcare workers were sought employment at crèches managed by the Hyde and Seek chain for RTÉ Investigates. They discovered serious violations of legislation, best childcare practice and required safety procedures. Child Protection Agency Tusla had completed 11 inspections at the facilities since September 2017 and, despite passing these reviews, children were being badly treated and place at serious risk in the event of fire.
Babies were seen to be left in high chairs for considerable periods of time which lead to them to becoming very stressed. One child was placed by themself in a room with the door closed due to perceived bad behaviour. The reporters also recorded incidents of poor food quality and inappropriate staff to child ratios.
This was only the beginning as it was seen that new staff, including one of the undercover reporters, was allowed to begin employment before they were appropriately Garda vetted. Sleeping conditions were another area of some worry as infants were placed to sleep on bouncers and there was not enough space between the cots to allow child care staff monitor the children.
Tusla issued a statement saying: “We recognise and share the serious concerns the programme raises about the quality of care within these crèches, but more importantly the impact of concerning adult behaviours on children.” The body will review the case and apply sanction up to and including criminal prosecutions and removing Hyde & Seek creches from the childcare register.
The Hyde & Seek group release a public statement commiting to their efforts to improve their practices. It said: “We know we need to work to rebuild, retain and enhance the trust our parents have in us. We have spoken to many of them in recent days and would urge others with concerns to contact us. We are available to talk to and meet parents at any time. We note that while the programme made criticisms of aspects of our service, it praised our childcare staff whose dedication, professionalism and kindness are central to the care we provide.”
Speaking in relation to the incident, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “I think I speak for everybody in the country when I say that I was really appalled by what we saw on Prime Time in relation to the way that children were treated,” said Mr Varadkar in Donegal tonight. And I know that a lot of parents dropping their kids off to crèche or to preschool this morning must have been that little bit more worried or that little bit more nervous than they would be normally.”
It is likely that the Hyde and Seek group will now be facing a number of creche scandal compensation claims from parents and guardians of the children who were attending the Hyde and Seek crechés.
Posted: February 24th, 2019
A four-year-old child has been awarded €45,000 compensation in relation to an accident she was involved in, in a Tesco store, when only at 20 weeks gestation in her mother’s womb.
The young girl, Siwan Stewart, was represented in the Circuit Civil Court court by barrister David K. McGrath who told Judge Eoin Garavan that the unborn baby girl, who is now just three months short of her fifth birthday, sustained injuries when her mother was struck by her shopping trolley which came to a sudden stop on a Tesco travelator.
Mr McGrath informed the Judge that Siwan’s mother, Elaine, crashed into her own shopping trolley when it halted unexpectedly on the travelator in Tesco’s at the Bloomfield Shopping Centre, Lower George’s Street, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, in February 2013.
Presiding Judge Garavan said that this was the first time he had dealt with the injury of an unborn child and the sort of one which, to the best of his knowledge, had not come before the court before.
Mr McGrath told Judge Garavan that when Siwan was delivered in May 2013 it was noticed that she had haemolytic disease of the newborn, a sort of jaundice and had to be treated medically in a special unit for just under seven days. A consultant had linked Siwan’s condition to the travelator accident that involved her mother in Tesco’s.
Following her initial filing of the personal injury compensation action on her daughter’s behalf, Ms Elaine Stewart, of Claremont Road, Sandymount, Dublin was offered a travelator injury compensation settlement offer of €45,000.
The Circuit Civil Court was also told that Ms Stewart’s other daughter Adelaide, who was three at the time and had fallen and struck her head on the travelator in the same accident, has been offered a personal injury Tescos compensation settlement of €28,000. Mr McGrath was recommending that the Judge approve both offers.
Mrs Stewart made no claim herself in relation to her own involvement in the accident, she only claimed against Tescos on her own behalf but only on behalf of her children. Judge Garavan approved both settlements and referred to the two offers as ‘very good’.
Posted: December 3rd, 2018
The operators of the Luas and Irish Rail have revealed that there has been more than 110 incidents of tram/train surfing recorded on their services in and around Dublin since 2014.
This activity, which involves a person grabbing on to the exterior of a carriage as it departs a platform, came to public attention in October 2018 when 20-year-old Rebecca Kelly was awarded €550,000 in rail injury compensation for sustaining a significant brain injury in a fall. The accident in question occurred when she was a teenager and fell from the Luas that she was clinging onto.
In the accident Ms Kelly hit her head on the tracks and needed to be dragged out of the way of another tram that was approaching the platform.
In the last few weeks, a Freedom of Information request has revealed that over 35 cases of tram surfing have been registered on Luas services since 2014.
Transdev Representative Ms Dervla Brophy said: “Tram surfing can be fatal. We have had a very small number of incidents of people trying to ‘scut’ and all staff are trained to be vigilant, observe and report. The public have reported [cases] too. Any activity or even potential concern that is reported – trams will be stopped, security and or gardai called. The risk of serious injury is very high. We show CCTV of various incidents that have occurred along the lines. The purpose is to request parents know where their kids are and if they are on the lines, they’re aware just how dangerous their playground might be.”
In response to a separate Freedom of Information Irish Rail stated that 87 incidents of train surfing have been registered 2016. In the past three years 12 train surfing incidents occurred on the Northern commuter route linking Dublin and Dundalk. All of the officially recorded incidents happened on the services provided by the Dart commuter link.
Irish Rail spokesperson Barry Kenny, commenting on the revelations, stated: “On board staff, station staff and security personnel are vigilant in ensuring we respond with security or garda support. Extra security patrols this year are yielding a reduction in the number of incidents.”
Irish Rail also made public that they have made some changes to the exterior of the Dart fleet of 76 carriages to make them more difficult to hold onto in a bid to halt the train surfing efforts.
Posted: April 13th, 2018
€37,500 car accident compensation awarded to two children injured in a car accident has been described as ‘inadequate’ by the father of the children.
The compensation award was divided as €20,000 for his nine-year-old in relation to a suspected fracture of his left arm and €17,500 for his seven-year-old brother in relation to soft tissue injuries.
The boys were injured in a car accident which occurred on March 26, 2016 and had sued an insured motorist, Dusan Gabor through their father.
Through the boy’s Barrister John Nolan their father, Graham Comiskey, told Judge Terence O’Sullivan in the Circuit Civil Court that was not satisfied with either settlement.
Mr Nolan said: “While the boys have sued through their father, Mr Comiskey, I have to consider the interests of the children and I do not believe they would gain higher awards in a full trial and may even be awarded much less”.
Mr Comiskey referred to the Book of Quantum in relation the compensation for such injuries and the settlements. He compared the settlement for his boys and stated that they were at the lower end of suggested damages.
He also queried if it would be possible for him to appeal should the judge go ahead and approve the road accident compensation settlements.
Judge O’Sullivan explained to Mr Comiskey a different judge may award a lower amount of road accident compensation. He added that he was happy that the compensation fell in the range of €15,000 and €20,000.
Counsel for the Comiskey family told the Court that this had been explained to Mr Comiskey. However, the boys’ father was still eager to oppose accepting the offers.
Judge O’Sullivan chose to approve both child accident compensation settlement offers and said that the monies be paid into court funds on behalf of the children in question.
He also advised Mr Comiskey: “Any decision of the Circuit Court can be appealed.”
Posted: November 2nd, 2017
15-year-old schoolboy Adam Russell was today awarded €32,000 compensation for personal injuries after being attacked and bitten in the face by a neighbour’s German Pointer dog
Legal Representations for Mr Russell, Barrister Brian Sugrue, claimed the boy was at the home of Erica Deacon and Eoin Gibson in the Ballinclea Heights estate in Killiney, Co Dublin when the dog, a Weimaraner short-haired German pointer, attacked him (Adam).
Circuit Court President Justice Raymond Groarke was told by Mr Sugrue that Adam Russell, who was 12 years old at the time of the attack, was attacked and bitten on his face by the dog while trying to play with it.
Adam, taking the legal compensation case through his father Colm Russell, was playing at the house belonging to Deacon and Gibson on 28 September 2013 when the German Pointer dog suddenly bit him.
He was taken, for treatment, to the Swiftcare Clinic, Dundrum, Dublin, where the cut to his face were dealt with by physicians. His nose injury was sutured and the wound just under his lower lip had been closed with surgical glue. The tooth injury suffered was later treated by dentists at Dalkey Dental Clinic.
Adam Russell’s injured tooth would possibly, according to Mr Sugrue, need a crown in the future but part of the €32,000 dog attack compensation settlement offer took future dental work into consideration.
Consultant Plastic Surgeon Patricia Eadie had examined Adam’s scars in 2016 and the court was told that revision surgery may have to take place. The scarring on his nose is permanent.
Judge Groarke was told that Mr Sugrue was approving acceptance of the €32,000 child injury compensation offer. Mr Groarke said that, while not generous, this offer was within the normal range of compensation for such dog attack injuries. The dog attack compensation offer was approved and will be invested in court funds until December 19 2019 when Adam Russell becomes 18 years of age.
