How to Claim Compensation If You’re Injured By A Faulty Product

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Faulty product injury claims can be successfully made in situations where a responsible party has failed in its duty to ensure public safety. If you’ve been injured in an accident due to a faulty product, you may be entitled to claim compensation. We work on a no win no fee basis, meaning there’s no financial risk to you if you don’t win your claim.

Compensation claims for injuries that don’t occur at work or on the road often fall under the umbrella of Public Liability claims. This would include injuries sustained through faulty or damaged goods, and the more widely-known slip and trip accidents which happen in public places.

However your accident happened, you will be entitled to seek compensation for your injuries if the accident wasn’t your fault. As well as a settlement for your injuries and distress, the compensation you receive will cover expenses that have resulted from your accident, such as medical costs, loss of earnings or even the loss of your job.

Examples of faulty product injury claims

Direct 2 Compensation have often helped people who have suffered injuries from damaged products and other such causes:

  • In one case, an electrical item that was new, yet had a dangerous fault that meant that when it was first plugged in it caused the client to suffer full exposure to the electrical current and suffer a very painful and upsetting electric shock.  The client was hospitalised (after emergency ambulance treatment) and required cardiac care.  He has spent the past 6 weeks receiving medical care from both his GP and hospital as well as being left with muscle and soft tissue pain in the left arm and shoulder.  His query to us was about making a claim against the product maker on the grounds of a faulty product.  As with most members of the public, he knew about claiming for things such as whiplash but was not aware of his rights in this matter. After his contact with us, he now knows that he has a viable claim.  He had ensured that he had reported the matter to the seller and manufacturer and still has the receipt from the recent purchase of the faulty item.
  • Mrs. H attended a hair salon to have her hair cut and a colour change ahead of her son’s wedding. The stylist failed to carry out an allergy test and simply changed the colour of her hair. Unfortunately, our client suffered a severe allergic reaction to the hair dye and ended up in A&E with a swollen face, blotchy skin and scabs all through her scalp. Some hair fell out and she forced to attend her son’s wedding not looking as well as she would like. She received financial compensation for the injuries and distress, but nothing could make up for the fact that she was not looking her best at her son’s wedding.
  • Mr. P purchased a well known brand of ready made pie. He bit in to the pie and snapped a tooth as there was a small piece of metal in the pie. His dental bill exceeded £2,000. He received £4,000 in compensation.

What you need for a successful faulty product claim

In terms of the injury side of the claim, there has to be a recognised injury and medical treatment has to have been sought and received by the claimant. Most injured clients get medical treatment in A&E or from their GP, or a chiropractor, osteopath or physio. This provides medical evidence, and if it’s noted on your medical records, it can be proven what injury you had.

It’s not enough to just be injured, the injury has to be severe enough to provide a sufficient level of quantum to enable the claim to be placed with a specialist personal injury solicitor. Quantum is the posh Latin term for value of the claim used in the legal world. To ensure that the injury value is sufficient, it is usually the case that an injured client will need to have suffered from their injury for a period of 4 weeks or more. Therefore, if you sprained your ankle mildly and recovered within a fortnight, you would struggle to bring a claim. But if you sprained your ankle badly, tearing the ligaments and spent 6 weeks on crutches and then had 5 physio sessions, your claim would easily pass the quantum test.

For the sake of a claim, its always best to ensure that your GP is made aware of any ongoing problems with an injury. If your injuries don’t settle and you notice discomfort a few weeks or months later, or if you’re not sleeping or feeling depressed because of your injuries, make sure it’s on your medical records.

The basic claim rules are this:

  • Your accident must be someone else’s fault
  • You must report your accident to the 3rd party
  • You must seek medical attention for your injuries

If you believe that you have a claim that is worth pursuing our specialist team only need a couple of minutes of your time to ascertain whether or not the cause of your injury will merit a successful claim for compensation.

Simply call our offices on 01225 430285 or we can .

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Comments & Questions

Read on for questions and advice about claiming, plus faulty product claim examples...

I was injured in the gym using the cable machine, while doing face pull exercise the cable snapped and i fell backwards down to the corner, knocked my arms had a cut bleeding knock my head too, that was last May this year.

Ian Morris

It is possible to pursue a claim against the gym in which you were injured or the company that owns the equipment. Succeeding in the scenario you describe would come down to whether or not the gym can demonstrate that they have an adequate regime of equipment inspection and maintenance in place.

Reply

Can I claim against my housing association for unsafe repairs that caused injury and hospital attendance?

Ian Morris

Yes, if you have been injured as a result of unsafe repair/maintenance work by any contractor or Housing Association, you have a right to try and pursue a claim for compensation against them.

We have succeeded with a number of claims of a very similar nature in the past and we would be very happy to try and assist you making a claim for compensation if you would like. Please email your contact number to me or call us on 01225430285 so that we can have a quick chat and get the information we need in order to then link you with the right specialist solicitor.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Reply

Just over 1 year ago, I was at work, sitting down for an interview management position. I sat on the computer chair, and the screws stripped out, and the top of chair fell to the ground with the metal L beam sticking up, and I fell on it with my lower right back, and bounced off it. It turned into a massive comet bruise reaching my belly. I got medical attention, and it had formed a seroma. I went to physical therapy, and it healed. I was out of work for almost 4 weeks. I was cleared, and went back to work. Lately I have had major issues with my back: sleeping, tying shoes, etc. I didn’t have insurance until March 1 this year. I had an x-ray done that showed moderate degenerative disease in 3 discs, and a chronic non-united deformity involving the Right transverse process of L2. My question is if the doctor can estimate a timeline when these issues started, would I have a case against my employer for compensation?

Ian Morris

Firstly, on the basis of liability I would be very confident that you have a viable and strong claim for compensation against the employer. Given the description of the incident – the faulty chair and how you sustained injuries, I think your Doctor should have no problem in linking the situation/symptoms that you cite to the index incident – the fall from the faulty chair.

The only issue I can see with linking your current symptoms to the index incident would be whether or not you have ever had any medical treatment for back related problems prior to the accident at work?

We would like to try and run this claim for you – I suggest that you call us on 01225430285 so that we can chat in detail and help you properly.

Reply
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