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Finger injuries are common and range from minor cuts and scrapes/wounds through to damage to bones, tendons and ligaments. If these injuries are not treated properly they can lead to permanent deformity as well as a loss of function. Our fingers are one of the easiest parts of our body that we can injure; they are also one of the most used parts of our body.

If you are unfortunate enough to suffer from an injury to your fingers then it is important that you receive careful treatment as this will ensure that you have a fast and more complete recovery. With finger injuries some of the symptoms that you may be suffering from include; bleeding, bruising, deformity and swelling; you may also notice redness and signs of infection but if this is the case they won’t develop for a few hours/days after your initial injury. As soon as you start to notice symptoms such as these it is important that you control the bleeding and elevate the hand. You should ensure that the wound is clean and dry before applying a bandage to it. This is however just a temporary measure until you can get the medical treatment that you will require to ensure that you finger heals correctly.

There are many different ways in which you can cause damage to your fingers such as a fracture/broken bone. Fractures to the finger are common and each finger has three bones (expect for the thumb). These bones are known as phalanges and are made up of the proximal (closest) phalanx, the middle phalanx, and the distal (furthest) phalanx. A fracture of a phalanx may be an isolated injury, but it is often associated with injury to tendons, ligaments, fingernails, or other soft tissue.

Dislocations are also another common injury that can occur when it comes to our fingers. A dislocation refers to an injury to a joint that causes a bone to move out of its normal alignment. Finger dislocations are one of the most common dislocations and can easily be caused by a direct blow to the finger through aspects such as playing sport or through elements of a job such as construction work. It should be noted that you should be careful where dislocations are concerned as they have the potential of causing damage to the surrounding ligaments, which hold the bones together. They can become over stretched and remain that way even after the dislocation has been reduced.

One other common injury that can occur to your fingers are nerve injuries. Within our fingers we have two nerves running alone each side of your fingers. If you damage the nerve you can cause numbness on the side of the finger.

Most finger injuries are caused as the result of a direct blow or cut. Many finger injuries are often work related and in many cases the finger becomes jammed, twisted or stretched. Some of the main causes of finger injuries are work or sport related as well as being the result of a slip, trip or fall. If you have suffered a personal injury that has left you with a direct injury to your finger then you could be entitled to make a claim for compensation. If you wish to make a claim for compensation after an injury to your finger then get in touch with a team of solicitors who will be able to help you find out where you stand legally.

Our thumb is what allows us to grip, without it we would find daily tasks very challenging as our grasp would be severely reduced. Sadly there are many ways in which we can cause damage to our thumb, including fractures and dislocations. One of the main injuries that occurs to the thumb is known as Bennett’s fracture.

Bennett’s fracture is an oblique fracture that affects the base of the thumb. It is the most common fracture to affect the thumb and is considered to be a serious injury that, without treatment, can quickly lead to disability of the thumb. Bennett’s fracture is normally brought on due to an axial blow on a partially flexed first metacarpal, which is one of the three bones that makes up the thumb. The other two bones are distal phalanx (of the first digit) and proximal phalanx (of the first digit). A Bennett’s fracture usually occurs during the delivery of a punch or as a result of a fall.

A Bennett’s fracture sounds harmless enough when in fact it is a worrisome type of fracture due to the fact the break in the bone also involves the joint between the thumb and the wrist, which, if left untreated, has the possibility of causing long term damage and problems for the thumb, which could restrict your daily life.

The common symptoms of Bennett’s fracture include pain and swelling at the base of the thumb. If you suspect that you have damaged your thumb it is important that you visit your GP or Accident and Emergency as soon as possible so a doctor can determine exactly what you have done. A doctor will when evaluate your injury and take some x-rays in order to determine the most appropriate treatment for you to receive. If your joint surface is lined up well a cast will be used to treat you; however if your joint is out of position surgery may be recommended and a doctor will determine whether pins will be able to hold it in place, if this is not the case then an incision will be made in order to align the bone fragments.

Another common injury that often affects the thumb is a dislocation. A dislocation of your thumb may affect the interphalangeal joint (thumb has only 2 phalanges) or metacarpophalangeal joint. Metacarpophalangeal dislocation tends to occur due to hyperextension injury and usually dorsal dislocation.

If you do have an injury occur to your thumb it is highly important that you get it looked at immediately as if you don’t complications could occur that will make your thumb worse. Some of these complications include post traumatic arthritis, bony malunion, chronic ligamentous damage and instability as well as vascular injury and even neurological injury.

If you are unfortunate enough to be suffering from an injury to your thumb then you could be entitled to make a claim for compensation. You are entitled to put a claim in for compensation if your thumb injury has occurred through no fault of your own. For more information about your rights and making a claim for compensation then contact a legal team today and they will be able to help you further if you do wish to pursue a compensation claim.

Road traffic accidents are sadly on the increase and as a result more and more people are now suffering injury; however some of these injuries are not actually caused by the road traffic accident but they can be caused by wearing a seatbelt; meaning many drivers and passengers who are involved in road traffic accidents are now suffering as a result of the one thing that is meant to protect them within a car.

Since 1983 you are permitted by law to have to wear a seatbelt within a car. Your seatbelt is your safety harness while you are travelling within a car; it is designed to secure you against harmful movement that can occur as a result of a collision or a sudden stop. They are intended to reduce injury by stopping you from hitting hard interiors of the vehicle and by preventing passengers from being thrown from the vehicle.

Seatbelts have gone through various changes since there introduction. They used to exist in various different forms such as a lap design, which is an adjustable strap that goes over your waist. This design was used a lot in older cars; however they are now uncommon expect when they are used in the rear of a car for the middle seat. Another design that passed through the ages was the sash design, which is an adjustable strap that goes over the shoulder. This design was mainly used in the 1960’s; however it was soon discovered that they were of limited benefit as it is easy to slip out of this design when involved in a collision.

The seatbelts that we now find present in our cars are known as three point seatbelts. These seatbelts are a lot similar to the lap and shoulder ones for the fact that they are like the two of them combined. These three point seatbelts help to spread out the energy of the moving body in a collision over the chest, pelvis and shoulders. Until the 1980s three-point belts were commonly available only in the front seats of cars with the back seats only having lap seatbelts but due to evidence emerging showing the potential for lap belts to cause the separation of the lumbar vertebrae and the sometimes associated paralysis, or seat belt syndrome, has led to a revision of passenger safety regulations in nearly all of the developed world requiring that all seats in a vehicle be equipped with three-point belts.

If you are involved in a road traffic accident there is the potential risk of your seatbelt digging into your abdomen and if this happens you could have an increase in abdominal tenderness as well as bowel injuries.

In order to reduce your risk of suffering from a seat belt related injury you should wear your seatbelt as tight as possible and you should wear the lap aspect of the seatbelt over your pelvis and hips, not your stomach as well as you should wear the diagonal aspect of your seatbelt over your shoulders and not your neck.

If you have been involved in a road traffic accident that was caused through no fault of your own and you have suffered from a seatbelt injury as a result of it then you could be entitled to make a claim for compensation.

If you are hoping to pursue a claim for compensation it is important that you get in touch with a legal firm today who will be able to guide you through everything that you need to know about making a claim for compensation.

The legal profession recently celebrated 10 years of ‘no win, no fee’ personal injury compensation claims. Since their introduction in 1998, ‘no win, no fee’ or Conditional Fee Agreements as they are also known, have been popular and controversial in equal measure.


It was claimed that the purpose of conditional fee agreements was to provide financial help claimants, who might not otherwise be able to make personal injury compensation claims. On the one hand, the advent of ‘no-win, no fee’ opened up access to justice to thousands of people who had been injured in accidents that were not their fault. On the other, cynics of the system have accused it of creating a compensation culture, and if anything, limiting people’s access to justice.


Background



No-win no-fee deals first arrived in 1995, for a range of court cases in England and Wales. Three years late, they were extended to all civil cases, apart from family courts.


The 1999 Access to Justice Act, introduced in April 2000, increased the number of no-win no-fee deals significantly, as judges could now make the losing side pick up the bill.


At the same time, legal aid for personal injury cases was abolished, making ‘no win, no fee’ the only viable choice for people in their quest for justice.


At the time of their introduction, Labour Minister Geoff Hoon heralded No-win no-fee as a step in the right direction, stating: “no win, no fee conditional agreements will result in better access to justice”


“Access will be given to the many people who fall between those who are very rich or those who are so poor that they qualify for legal aid.”


Some have argued on the contrary, that ‘no win, no fee’ has in fact limited people’s access to justice and that the move was simply intended to ease the burden on legal aid funds.


Traditionally, for a case to meet the criteria for legal aid, it has to be reviewed by an independent regulator who must be satisfied that there is a reasonable case.


In the case of ‘no win, no fee’, the case is reviewed by the solicitor directly, and they have a vested interest, as they are responsible for the financial burden of the case.


As a result, cases which should be brought to trial but are deemed to be high risk could be turned away.


Ethical Legal Practice


Liverpool Personal injury compensation claims company Aegis Law have a fully ethical policy of deciding which cases to take on as Gina Simpson LLB states:


“We are not claims farmers; we are in the business of getting justice for people. Of course we look at the chance of success, to decide whether or not we take on personal injury compensation claims, but this is not our sole motivation. We judge each case individually on its merits.”

In 1998 the High Court ruled that British Coal was negligent and responsible for two mining-related conditions, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and vibration white finger. Both of these diseases were caused by the inhalation of coal dust and affected thousands of miners across the UK, many of whom sought compensation.

Over the years following, the Department of Trade and Industry, which was responsible for the liabilities of British Coal, paid out over £7.5 billion in workers compensation claims. This has made it the largest workers compensation claims scheme in the world.

The department was unprepared for the sheer volume of claims they were to receive as the figure amounted to 760,000, over 3 times the figure they had initially anticipated. This was due, in part, to the fact that entitlement to compensation could be passed on to the miner’s estate in the event of their death.

The solicitors handling each claim were paid a fixed fee by the Government, but many chose to take additional payments for their services from the compensation awarded to their clients.

This caused outrage amongst miners, many of whom received paltry sums for their claims. The lowest award was a mere 50p. As a result, the Government was recently forced to admit that thousands of people had received much less in compensation that the administration costs of the case and that many legal firms had overcharged clients for their services.



One of the areas worst affected by this claims scandal is South Yorkshire, an area with a well-established tradition of mining. One lawyer, Jim Beresford of Doncaster firm Beresford’s, amassed a personal fortune of over £30million from ‘bulk processing’ mining workers compensation claims.



On the 9th June 2008, The Times reported that the Law firms involved in the fraudulent mining workers compensation claims were to be held accountable, and forced to repay millions of pounds which was falsely taken. Jim Beresford was among the dozens of solicitors who were ordered to appear before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal

It is estimated that as many as 75,000 former mine workers are likely to receive payments of around £50 million. Out of 3,600 claimants, reports have shown that 345 were found to have had an average of £450 wrongfully deducted by their solicitor.

Northwest workers compensation claims specialists Aegis Law operate a fully transparent policy of ‘no-win, no-fee.’ Gina Simpson from Aegis commented on the rports saying:


“Those firms who have over-charged the miners and their families are reprehensible. At Aegis we are proud to offer fully ‘no-win, no fee’ workers compensation claims to individuals across Liverpool, the Wirral and the rest of the northwest.”

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