Yoga teacher pictured doing head stands after claiming neck pain in car crash settles High Court action

A yoga teacher who claimed she still suffers pain in her neck and shoulder after her car was rear-ended seven years ago has settled a High Court action over the traffic accident.

Last week, the 28-year-old woman in evidence told the High Court her Instagram account showed her doing shoulder and head stands because you have to have interesting poses on social media.

“It’s my livelihood, nobody wants somebody sitting in a cross-legged pose,” she told Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds.

READ MORE: Yoga teacher claiming neck pain after car accident pictured on Instagram doing head stands

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The High Court judge had been asked to assess damages in the case of Chloe Geraghty, who claimed she suffered a neck and shoulder injury and still has pain after her car was rear-ended by another car seven years ago. The yoga teacher, under cross examination, said she disagreed with the contention by the other side that she did not sustain an injury.

Ms Geraghty from Lucan, now living in Spain, had sued the driver of the other car, Eoin Carroll from Stocking Wood Copse, Rathfarnham, Dublin, in the Circuit Court. But after the case was struck out because Ms Geraghty could not travel back from Spain, an appeal was brought to the High Court. When the case came back before the High Court on Tuesday, Ms Justice Reynolds was told the matter had been settled.

In the proceedings, Ms Geraghty had claimed that after the accident on June 8, 2017, she suffered pain in her neck and shoulder and was diagnosed as having a soft tissue injury. She was prescribed anti-inflammatory medication and advised to attend physiotherapy.

Ms Geraghty’s counsel, Thomas P Hogan SC ,opening the case, told the court that liability was conceded but it was claimed by the other side that the impact was of no consequence. He said it was their case that Ms Geraghty’s car was shunted forward about a metre in the accident, and she suffered a neck and shoulder injury.

In evidence, Ms Geraghty said at the time of the accident she was working as a personal shopper and was dropping out items to Dundrum and had come off the M50 when the accident happened. She said she was thrown forward a little bit and that the airbags did not go off. She later had pain and attended her GP a week later. The doctor noted tenderness to her neck and she later attended physiotherapy.

She said her neck and shoulder area was quite painful, and she wouldn’t say it was minimal, “but ongoing”. She said she later became a yoga teacher but finds if she “takes it too far with the yoga, she will have a lot of pain”. She attended yoga teacher training in Thailand in 2019 but said she suffered after classes. She said she was focusing on rebuilding her strength.

Cross-examined by Counsel for the other side, Moira Flahive SC, Ms Geraghty agreed she had an Instagram page on social media for her yoga business. Referring to the Thailand yoga training, which involved three classes a day and one hour in the gym, she said she was in a lot of pain afterwards and was on painkillers.

Referring to a number of Instagram posts which included head and shoulder stands, Counsel put to the witness that she advised in one post not to do it if you have any type of neck injury but appeared to be going against her own advice. Ms Geraghty replied: “I am going against my own advice, but I do have a neck injury.”

She said she has to take painkillers every day and it had not been recommended by doctors not to exercise or do yoga, but it in fact was encouraged. She said she had never told a doctor who had later examined her about her yoga teacher training or standing on her head because he never asked.

Counsel put it to the witness that she did not sustain an injury. Ms Geraghty said she disagreed. Counsel put it to her that what she was saying about the injury and the ongoing nature of it was misleading . Ms Geraghty replied that it was not her intention to mislead but “I still have pain in my shoulder today”. She said she also has to take painkillers after yoga.

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