13/05/2026
Cian O’Carroll Solicitors Secures High Court Approval of €1.1 Million Settlement in Traumatic Brain Injury Case
Cian O’Carroll Solicitors today secured High Court approval of a €1.1 million settlement on behalf of a young Tipperary man who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a road traffic collision when he was just sixteen years old.
The case was led by Aidan Flahavan of the firm, with Patrick Treacy SC appearing as counsel for the plaintiff.
Cian Slevin, now aged 22, was a rear-seat passenger in a vehicle which left the roadway between Newcastle and Cappoquin, Co. Tipperary on 27 January 2021 and entered a stream. Proceedings alleged that the vehicle had been driven at excessive speed and that there had been failures in the management and control of the car. Liability was denied and the matter ultimately resolved following mediation.
The High Court heard that Cian suffered devastating injuries including a traumatic brain injury, extensive scalp lacerations, multiple spinal fractures, rib fractures and chest injuries. He required intubation, intensive care treatment and neurosurgical management before eventually emerging from an induced coma.
Counsel for the plaintiff told the Court that the litigation involved significant disputes concerning the extent of the long-term cognitive impairment arising from the collision. The defence did not accept that the degree of cognitive injury was as severe as alleged by the plaintiff side and the Court heard that there was a real litigation risk in the case.
Approving the settlement, Mr Justice Paul Coffey ruled that the agreement represented a fair and reasonable resolution in all of the circumstances.
Cases involving traumatic brain injury are among the most complex and emotionally difficult personal injury actions before the courts. While physical injuries can often be seen and measured, cognitive and neurological injuries are frequently far more difficult to prove yet they can and do profoundly alter the course of a young person’s life long after the visible injuries have healed.
For the families of those injured, such cases are never simply about compensation. They are about securing future treatment, rehabilitation, care and financial stability after lives have been permanently changed in little more than an instant.
