The legal team for an 11-year-old schoolboy, injured in a car crash in Switzerland six years ago, may have increased his compensation by a factor of up to 10 times by switching his personal injury claim to the jurisdiction of an Irish court.
Barrister Tracy Ennis Faherty, who negotiated a €27,218 settlement for Frank Reaney, told Judge Fiona O’Sullivan she had been advised by a legal expert in Switzerland, Silvio Riesen, that the extent of Frank’s injuries might attract a mere few thousand Swiss francs.
Ennis Faherty, who appeared with Andrea Sullivan of Hussy Fraser Solicitors, said her team decided to switch Frank’s personal injuries claim to the €60,000 jurisdiction of the Circuit Civil Court in Ireland.
She told Judge O’Sullivan the legal roll over had been carried out under the Fourth Motor Insurance Directive Regulations of 2003 which allows residents of EU States, injured while abroad, to bring legal proceedings in their own country.
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Frank’s father Martin Reaney, of Snipe Lawn, Newcastle, Co Galway, who initiated the claim on behalf of his son, told the court in an affidavit that Frank, when he was five, had been injured in a road traffic crash on the Route de Grand – St Bernard, Switzerland in July 2018.
Ms Ennis Faherty told the court the boy had been detained in a Swiss hospital for five days while undergoing investigations in relation to abdominal injuries and had not been allowed to fly home for another five days after discharge from hospital.
She said the specialist advice Hussey Fraser Solicitors had obtained suggested that unless it could be shown Frank had suffered severe pain for a significant period after the crash the likelihood was that compensation under Swiss law would be very low.
“Silvio Riesen, a lawyer who specialises in these matters in Switzerland, has noted that only permanent injuries of a certain severity attracted compensation for pain and suffering,” Ms Ennis Faherty told the court.
The advice had been that small children, who might not have the same sensitivity as adults, were only entitled to an award for pain and suffering.
She said that in the circumstances she was recommending the court’s acceptance of a settlement offer from the insurers of the Swiss defendant amounting to €25,000 for personal injury and a further €2,218 for medical fees and expenses.
Judge O’Sullivan approved the offer which she described as a very good one.
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