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As no win, no fee lawyers know better than anyone, the mere fact of a product having caused injury is not enough for an injured party to receive a payout of personal injury compensation. Quite simply, for compensation to be paid, it is typical that one or more of the following must be proved:
In 2009, pushchair manufacturer Maclaren was left hoping that no win, no fee lawyers would be unable to prove any of the above after it was announced that 15 families had decided to pursue a group claim against the manufacturer for amputation and crush injuries caused by the folding hinges of a number of its pushchairs.
At the time of writing, the product liability claim remains in its early stages; it is anticipated that further claimants may add their names to the list of claimants involved in the group litigation order.
One of the lawyers representing the claimants commented, "If Maclaren continue to deny the claims, which they have done so far, they will be required to give disclosure on a whole range of documents relating to previous complaints, the design of the buggies, anything which might indicate they knew this was a problem."
Naturally, as stated above, if it should emerge that the manufacturer knew of the problem for some time and failed to act on this knowledge, those affected may have strong cases for receiving 100 percent compensation.
And, there is every indication that such damning evidence may well arrive. One mother explains how, 18 months prior to the story breaking, she wrote to Maclaren to inform them of how her 15-month-old lost her fingertip in a pushchair-related accident: "My mother was looking after her at the time and she had no idea what she had done.
"[My daughter] screamed and there was a lot of blood and it was only after she folded up the buggy that we found the little tip of [her] finger in the hinge.
"The most frustrating thing about this is that it has happened again and again.
"I find it very distressing that this is still happening because we alerted Maclaren to this over a year ago now and the fact that they just brushed it aside is very frustrating.
"It shouldn't have happened to anybody else's child."
Indeed, so concerned was the surgeon who treated one child that he wrote to Maclaren to voice his concerns. "Mother's back was turned at the time and she didn't see exactly what had happened but it was quite clearly when he was playing with the buggy," he said.
Adding, "When we examined the buggy in the hospital the tip of the finger fell out so we were in no doubt it had been amputated in the mechanism of the hinge."
"The boy's finger had been cut like a guillotine. This wasn't the kind of incident I'd ever seen before so I did something I don't usually do and I wrote to Maclaren to tell them I thought they needed to take a look at the design."
And now, with the case in the hands of no win, no fee lawyers, Maclaren is going to have to answer a lot of difficult questions. The group claimants' lawyer comments again, "It's not an obvious risk. It's not something that every parent would realise and one of the biggest problems is that you just don't expect this kind of thing to happen with a brand like this.
"Children are unpredictable and of course accidents happen but these parents are far from negligent and the most disgraceful thing is to say parents or users of the buggy are to blame."
