A judge has approved a €30,000 personal injuries settlement for a four-year-old girl whose ear piercings went wrong.
Barrister Conor Kearney told Judge John Martin in the Circuit Civil Court that Hallie Herbert suffered significant trauma and was left with scarring on both earlobes following the procedure in a store at The Pavilions Shopping Centre in Swords, Co Dublin.
Mr Kearney, who appeared with PBN Litigation Solicitors, said that in March 2024, just a month before her fifth birthday, Hallie had both her ears pierced by the manager in Claire's Accessories, in the shopping centre.
Hallie, of Abbeyvale Court, Swords, had small studs fitted and shortly afterwards her parents had noticed that the stud on the right ear was dragging the lobe downwards and returned to the store after five weeks.
Judge Martin heard that staff found it impossible to remove the studs which led to Hallie screaming and crying in the shop. She had been advised to come back and they would try again in 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."
He said she had been treated in a pharmacy in Portugal where staff had managed to remove the left earring.
Mr Kearney said Hallie had been left with a very small scar on her left ear and a slightly bigger one where her right earlobe had split. He was recommending a settlement offer by Claire’s Accessories of €30,330.
He said Hallie had suffered pain and trauma with multiple people having tried to take out the earrings and had been told she would not be able to have her ears pierced again until she was an adult or a much older teenager.
Judge Martin approved the offer.
