Boyes Turner’s personal injury lawyers have secured a product liability settlement of £160,000 for a man in his fifties who fell from a defective two-section ladder. Our client sustained a comminuted fracture (where the bone is broken into several pieces) through the talus (a bone in the ankle) when the ladder fell apart whilst he was climbing up to his loft. Shortly after the accident he received a recall notice from the defendant supplier, owing to defects in the fixing blocks which could cause the ladder to fail. The defendant supplier initially denied responsibility for the injury but later admitted liability after we obtained supportive engineering expert evidence and made a court application to force disclosure of all the supplier’s relevant documents. As a result of the accident, our client underwent multiple surgeries, culminating in a sub-talar fusion. He has been left with permanent pain and stiffness. He now walks with a limp. He is sensitive to cold, damp weather conditions, and has difficulty walking on uneven ground, going up and down stairs, squatting and kneeling. He has degenerative change in the joint and may need future surgical fusion and orthotics. His physical injuries have exacerbated his pre-existing depression.It was important to our client that the full impact of his injury was understood as, in addition to causing his pain and disability, it restricted his mobility and his access to his home. In order to prove this aspect of the claim to the defendant insurer and, if necessary, the court, we obtained evidence from the claimant’s treating orthopaedic surgeon and other experts which clarified our client’s ongoing difficulties, and confirmed his need for ground floor accommodation, along with the costs of further surgery. Negotiations led to a substantial settlement of £160,000, which will enable our client to meet his needs arising from the talar injury. We then assisted him in setting up a special n trust to protect his entitlement to benefits that he was already receiving for another unrelated medical condition. If you have suffered disability from a defective product, email the team on piclaims@boyesturner.com.
