Crush Injury Claims – How Much Compensation Can You Claim?

Crush injuries can be very painful, cause serious injuries and take a very long time to heal. As well as smashing bones to pieces, crush injuries can cause damage to your ligaments, tendons, muscles and internal organs. Importantly, if you’ve suffered a crush injury in an accident that wasn’t your fault, you may be eligible to make a crush injury claim for compensation.

If you believe you should be compensated for a crush injury, call our team for free advice on what action you can take. We’ll review your claim with you and could partner you with one of our personal injury solicitors. There’s no obligation to make a claim, but if you proceed, you’ll be represented on a No Win No Fee basis. That means you could make a crush injury compensation claim without paying legal fees upfront.

You can learn more about claiming compensation for crush injuries throughout the rest of this guide. If you have any questions whilst reading, please call us on 0800 6524 881.

Am I Eligible To Make A Crush Injury Compensation Claim?

Anybody who suffers a crush injury may be able to claim compensation, depending on the circumstances. For example, this might apply if your hand was crushed at work by faulty machinery, your foot was crushed on a building site, or you suffered crushed vertebrae in a car accident.

Generally, to make a successful crush injury claim, you’ll need to prove:

• The party you’re claiming against (the defendant) owed you a duty of care; and
• The defendant was negligent in some way; and
• You sustained a crush injury as a result of their negligence.

Legally, a duty of care is usually established by a piece of legislation. Generally, you’ll be owed a duty of care whilst on a company’s premises, in a public place, at work or on a road. If you contact one of our specialists, they’ll check this for you, so you don’t need to be too worried about which law is relevant to your claim.

Can I Claim Compensation For Crush Injuries If I was Partly To Blame?

Yes, you may still be eligible to claim compensation for a crush injury even if you were partly to blame. The Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 would apply in such cases. This essentially means that if you were partially responsible for your injury, your compensation would be reduced to reflect your share of the blame.

For example, if it is found that you were 20% responsible for your crush injury, your compensation award would be reduced by 20%. The defendant would still be responsible for the remaining 80% of the compensation.

It’s worth noting that the specific circumstances of the claim will be carefully considered when determining the level of responsibility for the accident. An experienced personal injury solicitor on our team can help assess the details of your case and advise on the likelihood of a successful claim and the amount of compensation for a crush injury you may be entitled to.

Common Causes Of Crush Injury Claims

So long as you’ve suffered a crush injury because of somebody else’s negligence, we could help you to start a compensation claim. Some common examples of when this might be true include:

• Road traffic accidents. Any accident involving a vehicle has the potential to cause limbs to be trapped and crushed.
• Workplace accidents. Crush injuries caused by your employer’s negligence could allow you to seek compensation for any suffering.
• Overcrowding. If you were crushed at a concert, in a nightclub or at a sports event because of overcrowding, we may be able to help you claim for your injuries.
• Public place accidents. An example in this category could be if you suffered a crush injury to your thumb by a defective shopping trolley.
• Sporting injuries. You could claim for crush injuries caused by damaged sports equipment, unsuitable playing surfaces or inadequate supervision or refereeing.

Essentially, businesses and organisations must try to foresee the risk of crush injuries by conducting regular risk assessments and making changes where necessary. If they’ve failed to carry out such checks and you’ve been injured as a result, please get in touch and let us know what happened.

Common Types Of Crush Injuries

Some of the most common crush injuries that can lead to compensation claims include:

• Fractured bones.
• Soft tissue damage.
• Internal organ damage.
• Nerve damage.
• Amputations.

Crush injury claims could be made for these injuries and others besides. If you’d like to find out if you are eligible to claim, please contact us today.

How Much Compensation Will I Get For A Crush Injury Claim?

There isn’t a fixed compensation amount for crush injuries, as each claimant is affected differently. For example:

• Severe crush injuries to toes might be worth around £16,770 to £25,710 in compensation.
• A crushed hand that required surgical amputation could result in compensation of £117,360 to £133,810.

These figures are only guidelines. In reality, settlements are typically based on general and special damages, and can include factors such as:

• Any physical pain, suffering or discomfort.
• Flashbacks, distress, anxiety or other forms of psychological injury.
• Any of your normal activities that were restricted while you were injured.
• Loss of earnings and future reductions in income.
• The costs of replacing clothes and other personal items damaged in your crush accident.
• Physiotherapy and other medical costs.
• Care costs.
• Travel expenses.
• Making changes at home to make it easier to cope with long-term injuries.

To help value the general damages element of your claim, you may have to attend a medical assessment. If a personal injury solicitor from our team takes on your crush injury claim, they’ll book a meeting with an independent medical expert (usually locally to claimants) so you won’t have to travel too far.

Compensation Calculator

As each claim is unique, we can’t offer a compensation estimate for a crush injury claim until your case has been reviewed properly. However, you may get an idea of other compensation amounts for crush injuries by using our calculator:

Evidence To Support A Crush Injury Claim

You will need to prove how your accident happened, who caused it and how you’ve been affected to win a crush injury claim. To do this, you could supply:

• Medical records. X-rays, doctor’s notes and other medical records to prove your diagnosis.
• Witness details. Details of anybody else who saw you get crushed, so witness statements can be requested if needed.
• Photos. Clear photographs of the accident scene to try and prove what caused you to be crushed.
• Accident report/s. A copy of accident report forms to try and prove when, where and how your accident happened.
• Video/s. Footage from a CCTV camera or dashcams to make it easier to confirm what caused the accident.
• Financial records. Copies of any financial documents to prove any costs you wish to claim back.

Your solicitor will help you to secure the evidence needed to support a crush injury claim, but if you’ve managed to collect anything already, please let us know during your free consultation.

Time Limits For Claiming Crush Injury Compensation

You may already know that a 3-year time limit usually applies for personal injury claims. In general, the limitation period for crush injury claims will start from the date of the accident. However, there are sometimes exceptions, so it’s important to get legal advice based on your own circumstances.

If a child has sustained a crush injury, parents acting as a litigation friend could claim on their behalf without worrying about the time limit, so long as they begin before the child’s 18^th birthday.

Similarly, if the injured person lacks the mental capacity to handle a crush injury claim, the 3-year time limit will not apply unless they regain capacity.

Ideally, we would suggest that you begin the claims process as soon as you can to allow plenty of time for medical reports and other forms of evidence to be collected to support your claim.

Please get in touch to check how long you have left to claim.

How Long Does The Process Of Claiming Crush Injury Compensation Take?

The length of time it takes to settle a crush injury claim can vary widely depending on a variety of factors, including the severity of the injury, the complexity of the case, and the willingness of the defendant to admit they are liable.

Therefore, a crush injury claim may be settled relatively quickly, within a few months of starting the claim. However, if the case is more complex, involves more serious crushing injuries, or if liability is disputed, the process can take significantly longer, potentially stretching on for a year or more.

It’s important to bear in mind that every claim is unique, and it’s difficult to provide a specific timeline without knowing the details of the particular case. In our opinion, it’s best to work with an experienced personal injury solicitor, such as ours, who can help you through the claims process and provide guidance on what to expect in terms of timing and potential outcomes.

Do I Need A Personal Injury Solicitor To File A Crush Injury Claim?

You’re not legally required to use a solicitor, but crush injury claims can be complex. Proving how the accident happened, who was at fault, and how badly you’ve been affected often means dealing with insurers who will try to reduce compensation or deny your claim altogether.

By working with a specialist personal injury solicitor from our team, you’ll have somebody on your side to gather evidence, handle negotiations, and challenge any unfair offers. If your case is accepted, we’ll manage everything for you on a No Win No Fee basis and focus on securing the maximum compensation available.

Starting The Crush Injury Claims Process

Our team of advisors is on hand to help with the crush injury claims process. If you call 0800 6524 881 today, you’ll receive free legal advice, and we’ll review your options on a no-obligation basis.

Should one of our solicitors agree to represent you, you won’t pay legal fees upfront, and you’ll only have to cover the cost of your solicitor’s work if your claim is successful.

For more information about making a crush injury compensation claim, please feel free to connect to our live chat service.