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By Danielle Graves. Last Updated 31st January 2024. Welcome to our guide, which covers finger trapped in a door injury claims. Now, the human hand is an incredible thing, a dextrous, flexible framework of 27 bones that is surprisingly resilient.
However, bend a finger a little too far the wrong way, or put a little too much pressure on the wrist joint, and these fragile bones can dislocate or fracture or you can suffer tendon damage. Getting a hand trapped in a door can lead to injuries which, in some cases, could be quite severe. This guide will explain how to make a personal injury claim with the support of a No Win No Fee solicitor.
Our team can answer any questions you have about your potential claim for a finger injury or the claims process in general if you give them a call at 0333 000 0729.
Jump To A Section:
- When Can You Make A Finger Trapped In A Door Injury Claim?
- Types Of Crush Injuries Affecting The Hands And Fingers
- Causes Of Hands Or Fingers Be Trapped In A Door
- Steps To Take If Your Fingers Were Crushed In A Door
- Someone Shut My Finger In The Door – How Long Do I Have To Claim?
- Finger Trapped In A Door Injury Claim Calculator
- Special Damages In Crushed Or Smashed Finger Claims
- No Win No Fee Finger Or Hand Trapped In A Door Injury Claims
- More Resources
When Can You Make A Finger Trapped In A Door Injury Claim?
If you would like to make a finger trapped in a door injury claim, you must satisfy the personal injury eligibility criteria. This means that you must be able to demonstrate that your injury was directly caused by someone else breaching the duty of care they owed you.
Some examples of daily situations where you are owed a duty of care include:
- At work – Your employer owes you a duty of care while you are at work to take reasonably practicable steps to ensure the employee’s health, safety and welfare while at work. This legal obligation is set under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA).
- In public place – While you are using public premises for permitted purposes, the individual or organisation in control of that space (the occupier) has a legal duty to ensure that you are reasonably safe. This is their duty of care as per the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957.
- While on the roads – Road users, including vehicle drivers, motorbike riders, cyclists and pedestrians, are expected to navigate in a manner that prevents injury and damage, both to themselves and other road users. These road users must comply with any relevant rules and regulations found in the Highway Code as well as the Road Traffic Act 1988.
If you have any questions about finger injury compensation amounts, speak to a member of the Legal Helpline advisory team using the contact detail at the top of the page. Your eligibility to make a finger injury claim can be assessed, and if you meet the criteria, you could be connected to one of the personal injury solicitors from our panel.
Types Of Crush Injuries Affecting The Hands And Fingers
If you trap your hand in a door, several different kinds of injuries could be caused. These injuries can be broadly split into five general types, which are:
- Cuts and lacerations – generally caused by the hand being cut by the door or by trauma to the skin when a person applies force to free their hand from a door. Cuts and lacerations could result in an impaired grip.
- Dislocations and fractures – these can be caused by the initial trauma of the hand being crushed or by applying pressure to pull a trapped hand out of a door. Your broken finger or broken knuckle may cause permanent disability, such as stiffness.
- Soft tissue injuries – such as sprains and strains, these would be more common in accidents where the victim’s hand was subjected to a force of movement in a direction the hand or wrist is not intended to make. While the finger injury heals, you may experience restricted movement.
- Amputation – this could be complete amputation of a hand or the loss of part of the hand or one or more fingers.
- Infections – these would generally result from not having other kinds of injuries such as cuts and lacerations treated properly.
However, you can only claim compensation if you can prove third-party negligence. Please speak to our team to learn more about finger injury compensation amounts.
Causes Of Hands Or Fingers Be Trapped In A Door
There are many ways that you can get a hand crushed in a door or even suffer less serious injuries, such as a finger crushed in a door. Some examples of accidents that could cause such injuries could be:
- Getting a hand trapped in the door of a lift due to the lift malfunctioning and closing too early, or the lift not detecting an obstacle blocking it from closing further. If you would like to claim for a lift door accident, you would need to prove the organisation responsible for that lift breached their legal obligations to keep you reasonably safe. For example, by failing to complete risk assessments or follow government guidance for maintaining the lift.
- Car doors are common culprits in such accidents. The wind can cause a car door to slam shut on a person’s hand. Or a driver might close a passenger door, not noticing that one of the passengers still has a hand outside the door. For example, a child’s hand slammed in a car door by the driver checking that doors are secured before driving off. However, in order to claim finger injury compensation, you would need to prove that your finger injuries occurred due to a breach of a duty of care owed to you.
- An accident at work, where an employee closes a door behind them without realising one of their colleagues is about to use the same door. The door could close on the hand of the person about to step through it. If you can prove your employer owed a duty of care and a breach in it caused your finger injury, you could be entitled to make an accident at work claim.
These are good examples of how a person can have their hand shut in a door in a way that was not their fault. If a third party was to blame in some way, then a finger trapped in a door injury claim could be possible. If you speak to our team, they will let you know whether they think you are eligible to claim or not.
Steps To Take If Your Fingers Were Crushed In A Door
If you have suffered an injury such as a thumb fracture due to getting your hand stuck in a door, then there are several steps you can take to both ensure you get the help you need and also to prepare for making a claim. For example:
- Visit the hospital, even if you think your injuries are only minor in nature. Medical evidence, such as your medical records, will be needed to support your finger injury claim.
- Take photographs of the accident scene and the cause if you can, so these can be submitted in evidence to support your claim for finger injury compensation.
- Report the accident to the relevant party, such as filling in the accident book at work or following the accident reporting procedure at a shop.
- If anyone saw you get your hand trapped in a door, gather witness contact information so they can be approached for a statement later into the claims process.
- Begin to make a record of any financial losses, and be sure to keep receipts, bills and invoices that relate to expenses encountered due to your finger injury.
For more free advice related to collecting evidence for a broken hand at work claim, or to learn more about the injuries you could sustain after trapping your hand in a door, contact our team.
Someone Shut My Finger In The Door – How Long Do I Have To Claim?
If you are eligible to make a claim, after slamming your finger in a door, for the injury you have suffered, you must start the process within the relevant time limit as set by the Limitation Act 1980. This is typically three years from the date of the accident for a personal injury claim.
However, there are certain time limit exceptions. These include:
- Those who lack the mental capacity to bring forward a claim themselves. These parties will have an indefinite time limit suspension applied to the limitation period that lasts for as long as they lack this mental capacity. During this suspension, a court-appointed litigation friend can make a claim for finger injury compensation on the injured party’s behalf. Should the injured party regain the mental capacity to claim, they will have three years from the date of recovery to start the process if a litigation friend did not act for them.
- Those under the age of 18. These parties will have a pause applied to the time limit, which lasts until their 18th birthday. Prior to this, a litigation friend can bring forward their finger injury claim. If the injured party turns 18 without a claim being made for them, they will have three years from that date to start the process.
Contact our advisors today if you have any questions, such as ‘Someone shut my finger in a door, could I be eligible to make a claim?’ They can inform you whether you have a valid compensation claim and are within the relevant time limit.
Finger Trapped In A Door Injury Claim Calculator
You could try to use a personal injury claims calculator to get a rough estimate of the amount of compensation you could claim.
You can also check the table below. It is based on compensation brackets found in the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) used by the legal system in England and Wales to value the general damages part of a personal injury claim. General damages refer to the physical pain and mental suffering you suffered as a result of your finger injuries.
It shows compensation brackets for different hand injuries and an entry at the top to show how finger injury compensation could be awarded for numerous injuries plus any costs incurred due to your trapped finger.
Finger Injury Claims Compensation Table
| Type of Injury? | How Severe? | Compensation | Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serious multiple injuries and expenses | Very Severe | Up to £250,000+ | Settlements might include compensation for more than one injury of a serious nature plus any expenses caused by these injuries, including lost earnings, medical expenses and travel costs. |
| Injured hand | Amputation | £96,160 to £109,650 | In this category, it could be the loss of one or both hands. |
| Injured hand | Serious | £29,000 to £61,910 | In this category would be injuries that reduce the capabilities of the hand in the region of 50%. Such as the loss of one or more fingers, or fingers that have been reattached but function less than perfectly. The hand could be clawed or clubbed, and the grip could be affected and weakened due to disfigurement of the hand. |
| Injured hand | Less serious | £14,450 to £29,000 | In this category would be severe injuries caused by crush damage, that would result in some measurable and significant loss of function of the hand, even after corrective surgery. |
| Injured hand | Moderate | £5,720 to £13,280 | In this category would be deep penetrating wounds, all kinds of crush damage, as well as tissue damage such as cuts, lacerations and burns. It would also include injuries that were worse, but have been partially treated using surgery. At the lower end of the scale, would be injuries with long-term symptoms that are not intrusive. |
| Finger injuries | Severe | Up to £36,740 | The claimant has suffered severe finger fractures which could result in partial amputations, deformity and impairments. |
| Finger injuries | Total or partial loss | £12,170 to £18,740 | The claimant has suffered either the total or partial loss of their index finger. The bracket also considers disfigurement and impairments to the index finger. |
| Finger injuries | Serious | £10,320 to £16,340 | This bracket covers serious injuries to either the ring or middle fingers. The award considers deformity, impairments and amputations. |
In addition to your medical records, you may be invited to attend an independent medical exam. This can help your legal team gain a better understanding of what impact your trapped finger injuries will have on your life and ensure your general damages are accurately valued.
Special Damages In Crushed Or Smashed Finger Claims
If you were to make a claim for a fractured finger or any other injury caused by getting a hand stuck in a door or if you shut your finger in a car door, then if your claim is a success, you will be awarded several different kinds of damages. For example:
Special damages (paid to compensate the claimant for financial losses):
-
- Lowered work prospects.
- Loss of earnings.
- Private medical fees.
- Care costs.
- Out-of-pocket expenses.
- Other medical expenses, such as bandages and splints as well as prescriptions.
- Home help.
- Public transport costs.
In order to receive finger injury compensation for your financial losses, you should submit proof. For example, receipts, invoices and bank statements.
If you would like to know more about how finger injury compensation amounts could be calculated, or how much compensation you could receive in a successful finger injury claim, get in touch with our advisory team.
No Win No Fee Finger Or Hand Trapped In A Door Injury Claims
Now that you know more about how to make a claim for a finger injury, you might be wondering how a No Win No Fee solicitor could help you. A solicitor can help you gather evidence, negotiate a settlement, and explain any legal jargon that comes up throughout the claims process.
Alongside this, our panel of personal injury solicitors work on a No Win No Fee basis. This means that you generally don’t need to pay any upfront or ongoing fees for their work, since they usually provide their clients with a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). Plus, under this kind of agreement, you won’t need to pay for your solicitor’s work if your claim fails.
However, if your claim succeeds, your solicitor will be owed a success fee. This is taken straight from your compensation as a small percentage with a legal cap.
Contact Us
To find out how a solicitor from our panel could help you, contact our team of advisors today by:
- Calling us on 0333 000 0729
- Using the live chat feature
- Contacting us online
More Resources
You might like to read these other external pages for more info:
These other guides could also be helpful:
- Claiming For An Accident In A Shop
- Workplace Accident Claims
- How To Claim For A Hand Injury
- Learn how to make a rib injury compensation claim by reading our helpful personal injury claims guide.
- Are you wondering how much compensation you could receive for an injury in a shop? Our guide offers more information.
- If you’ve suffered a back injury at work from heavy lifting, our guide offers more information on the compensation claims process.
Thank you for reading our guide, which explains finger trapped in a door injury claims.
