Pushchair finger injuries - Ibbotson Brady

Hi again, John here.

You might have seen a lot of publicity about a rash of injury compensation claims made against Maclaren, the pushchair manufacturer, a couple of years ago. People, including some children, were suffering nasty trapping injuries whilst the pushchairs were being collapsed or opened.

Some of these accidents were so serious that finger amputations were suffered. It seems that the moving parts weren’t adequately guarded and a needless and entirely avoidable injury hazard was created. Accident compensation claims were made and a guard or cover was later supplied as Maclaren did their best to solve the problem and deal responsibly with the victims. There was further controversy over whether product recalls ought to have been made, or made sooner.

I can’t mention names, but I have a client who suffered a similar nasty accident and injured her finger really badly with a Phil and Teds pushchair. Phil and Teds is a top end designer pushchair brand, made famous by the celebrities who used them for their offspring, including Brangelina, I believe.

My poor client had the tip of her finger taken off whilst taking the Phil and Teds pushchair out of her car boot. As she took it out, it swung open and somehow self assembled, unfortunately whilst my client’s finger was in the gap between the upper and lower steel spars. The gap was not guarded or protected and a rather gruesome injury resulted.

My client saw the Maclaren publicity and contacted me to ask whether she might have a claim for compensation for her injuries too. This is what lawyers call a product liability claim and I was happy to help her on a no win no fee basis.

Product liability claims have their own foibles and issues. One thing that can help these claims is strength in numbers. If, like in the Maclaren cases, you can show that loads of people have had similar accidents, then you have a lot of powerful evidence for your claim.

The magic of the internet helps hugely in these cases. If you google something like Phil and Teds accidents or Phil and Teds injuries you can find a lot of helpful information, and maybe some similar cases, and so achieve some strength in numbers.

Blogs and forums, like the various mumsnetty and parenting ones, can be a goldmine. In fact, it is now possible that others will do just such a search and come up with this blog. If you have, by the way, and are reading this, please contact me! We can help one another, so click on the contact box below or use the other means of contact on our website.

It’s still early days for my poor client and her claim, so I can’t give you any outcome or end to the story just yet, but I will keep fighting and gathering evidence for her.