A judge has sanctioned a €30,000 personal injury settlement for a 4-yr-old girl after complications arose from having her ears pierced.
Barrister Conor Kearney told Judge John Martin at the Circuit Civil Court that Hallie Herbert suffered considerable distress and was left with scarring to both earlobes following the procedure at a shop in The Pavilions Shopping Centre in Swords, Co Dublin, reports RTE.
Mr Kearney, appearing alongside PBN Litigation Solicitors, said that in March 2024, just weeks before her fifth birthday, Hallie had her ears pierced by the store manager at Claire’s Accessories in the shopping centre.
Hallie, who lives at Abbeyvale Court in Swords, had small stud earrings fitted, but her parents soon noticed the stud in her right ear pulling the lobe downward and returned to the shop after five weeks, reports RTE.
Judge Martin was told that staff were unable to remove the earrings, causing Hallie to scream and cry in the store, and she was advised to return again after a few weeks.
“In the meantime,” Mr Kearney told the court, “Hallie had been brought on a holiday to Portugal during which the right earlobe split and the earring fell out”, reports RTE.
He said she received treatment at a pharmacy in Portugal, where staff managed to remove the earring from her left ear.
Mr Kearney said Hallie was left with a very small scar on her left ear and a slightly larger scar where her right earlobe had split, reports RTE.
He told the court he was recommending acceptance of a settlement offer from Claire’s Accessories in the sum of €30,330.
He said Hallie had endured pain and trauma as several people attempted to remove the earrings and that she had been advised she would not be able to have her ears pierced again until adulthood or much later in her teenage years, reports RTE.
Judge Martin approved the settlement.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
