A woman has described herself as "one of the lucky ones in Ireland's claims culture" after a taxi driver's €60,000 personal injury claim against her was dismissed.

The first time Sarah and Brendan Hogan, from Co Carlow, knew they were facing claims for almost €400,000 damages and legal costs was when they received solicitors' letters.

Those letters alleged they had caused a collision in which a number of people had been badly injured.

But yesterday the Circuit Civil Court was told there had never been a collision.

The only thing taxi driver Bernard Gaffney hit in April 2017 was his brakes, yet the incident generated five personal injury claims totalling €300,000, Judge John O'Connor heard.

Ms Hogan said she "felt like doing cartwheels out of the courtroom" after Mr Gaffney's claim was thrown out because the judge found the alleged groin injury he suffered was far too remote to have been associated with the incident.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, mother-of-two Ms Hogan told how she was unable to get insurance herself as a result of the claim.

"There was no accident, there was no collision. I was getting so frustrated by people calling it an accident," she said.

"I couldn't get insurance in my own name, the premium was so high. The premium was astronomical.

"But we're one of the lucky ones. I'm glad we decided to fight the claim."

The barrister representing the couple said it was the first time he had come across a personal injuries case involving only a braking manoeuvre, which thousands of motorists carried out daily in their cars.

The case dates to April 2017 when the Hogans had been making their way home from a Jenny Greene concert at the 3Arena in Dublin.

They had got lost in traffic and had been trying to find their way back onto the correct route when they made an illegal right turn. At the next junction, they said, their car was attacked by two men who had jumped out of a taxi.

One man had shouted "You're dead" and both men started thumping their car, the court was told. Mr Hogan had quickly reversed and driven off.

"It was terrifying," Ms Hogan said.

Mr Gaffney was suing the Hogans and their insurance company while four of his passengers were suing him as well as Allianz and the Hogans.

Only Mr Gaffney's case came before the court yesterday but two of his passengers, Patrick Keeler and Nancy Conroy, gave evidence of having been injured in the "emergency braking incident". Mr Keeler denied he had been one of the men who jumped out and attacked the Hogans' car.

Mr Gaffney told the court he had been involved in three previous personal injury claims in which he had received damages totalling €49,000.

He said that he was not aware of an attack on the Hogans' car on the night of the braking incident.

Judge O'Connor said he had not proved his case, dismissing his claim with costs.

Irish Independent