Broken Hand Compensation Claims In The UK
By Cat Reeves. Last Updated 26th January 2024. The hand is formed by multiple bones that all play a part in helping us complete daily tasks. When one of these bones is injured, day-to-day life can become difficult and disrupted. If you’ve suffered a broken hand injury due to someone else’s negligence, you may feel frustrated and hopeless. This is why broken hand compensation claims exist.
Broken hand compensation
It aims to help you get your life back on track when you’ve suffered an injury that wasn’t your fault. Filing a personal injury claim aims to compensate you for the ways the injury has affected your life.
Broken hand treatment can be extensive and prolonged. This type of injury can mean that life as you know it may come to a halt and you may not only be suffering pain but also financial difficulties. Furthermore, the recovery time can vary greatly depending on the types of fractures you suffered.
Get In Touch With Our Team
Our friendly team of advisers is always available to offer you 24/7 free legal advice. They can have a chat with you about your situation and assess how much compensation you could claim for your injuries.
If you have a valid case, they can then connect you with our expert panel of personal injury solicitors to begin your personal injury claim. You can get in touch with our team of advisers by:
- Calling them on 020 3870 4868. An adviser will be happy to help.
- Filling out our online claims form. One of our advisers will get back to you at your earliest convenience.
- Chatting with our team of advisers via our live chat pop-up box for an immediate response.
Services And Information
- Causes Of Hand Fractures
- How Much Compensation For A Broken Hand – Potential Payouts
- Limitation Periods For Broken Bone Injury Claims
- What Evidence Do I Need To Claim Compensation For A Broken Hand?
- Making Broken Hand Compensation Claims On A No Win No Fee Basis
- More Resources
Causes Of Hand Fractures
There are a variety of different causes of hand fractures. Some common causes of a broken hand injury are:
- Road traffic accident: Sometimes a hand fracture can be caused by trauma such as a road traffic accident. A car accident can cause your hand to break in many places, which can cause many issues throughout your daily life. If you experience this due to a car crash that wasn’t your fault, you may be able to claim broken hand compensation.
- Slip, trip, and fall accidents: This is common in workplace accidents and public places. Hand fractures tend to happen in this scenario when the hand is outstretched to protect the body from the fall, but the blow breaks the hand. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states that employers have a duty of care to safeguard and protect employees. Similarly, the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 concludes that the occupier or owner of a place anyone has access to has a duty of care to protect visitors. If you suffer an accident due to a breach of this duty of care, you may be able to make a broken hand compensation claim.
- Osteoporosis: This condition can weaken the bones, making them more vulnerable to breaks and fractures.
- Overuse: Repetitively using the same muscles can strain and tire them, placing force on the bone. This often causes stress fractures, which are more common in athletes.
How Much Compensation For A Broken Hand – Potential Payouts
Some articles include a personal injury claims calculator, but broken hand compensation amounts tend to be unique.
Therefore, we’ve decided to instead provide a personal injury compensation table to show how much compensation some injuries could be valued in compensation.
This table is for example purposes only and figures may vary depending on injury severity and other personal factors. The figures we have included come from a publication called the Judicial College Guidelines. This contains head to toe injuries both physical and mental suffering that have values attached to them. It can be used by legal professionals who support personal injury claims. We’ve also included a figure in the top row that shows how you could be compensated for multiple severe injuries and special damages. This figure is not from the Judicial College Guidelines.
| Injury: | Notes: | Compensation: |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Severe Injuries and Special Damages | Claimants could be compensated for more than one injury of a serious nature and incurred expenses, such as home help and lost income. | Up to £150,000+ |
| Serious Damage To Both Hands (b) | Permanent cosmetic disability with a significant reduction in function. | £55,820 to £84,570 |
| Serious Hand Injuries (e) | Serious injuries that reduce capacity in the hand to about | £29,000 to £61,910 |
| Severe Fractures to Fingers (f) | These result in amputations, impairment of grip, and reduction of use. | Up to £36,740 |
| Moderate Hand Injury (h) | Crush injuries and laceration type injuries sit in this bracket. | £5,720 to £13,280 |
| Fracture of Index Finger (j) | Cases where the fracture has mended but grip is still impaired. | £9,110 to £12,240 |
| Serious Injury to the Thumb (t) | Nerve damage and fractures necessitating the insertion of wires. | £12,590 to £16,760 |
| Minor Hand, Finger, and Thumb Injuries (w) | Fractures that recover within six months. | Up to £4,750 |
If your personal injury claim is successful there are two types of damages that could be awarded. General damages compensate for the injury itself and the physical and mental impact it’s had on your life. The awarded bracket will be based on the severity of the injury and the length of treatment time.
Special damages compensate for the financial effect the injury has had on you. For example, you may suffer a loss of earnings if you have to take time off work due to your injuries.
However, you’re unlikely to receive special damages without evidence of your financial loss. For example, you could provide payslips or bank statements to prove you’ve suffered a loss of earnings.
Limitation Periods For Broken Bone Injury Claims
The general personal injury claims time limit is three years. This means three years to begin your claim not make it. That’s three years from the exact date you suffer the injury or three years from when you realise that the injuries are due to someone else breaching their duty of care. However, there are some exceptions to this time limit:
- Child accident claims: If you’re under the age of 18, you cannot make your own claim. The three-year time limit begins on your 18th birthday. On the other hand, someone close to you can act as a litigation friend to pursue the claim on your behalf sooner than this if you’d like.
- Mentally incapacitated: If you lack the mental capacity to make a claim, the three-year time limit begins when you commence recovery. However, a friend/family member can become a litigation friend to file the claim for you if you’d prefer.
If you’d like to learn more about how long you have left to claim, you can contact our team of advisers who can discuss this with you.
What Evidence Do I Need To Claim Compensation For A Broken Hand?
As part of the hand injury claims process, you will need to submit evidence that proves liability for the injuries that you are claiming for. Examples of evidence that could be helpful when seeking broken hand compensation include:
- A copy of your medical records. These can help illustrate the nature of your hand injury and what treatment you have received and will need. For example, an X-Ray could show the severity of your broken bones.
- Any photographs connected to the injury. These could be of the accident scene, faulty equipment or of the injuries.
- Accident videos. This could be CCTV footage, dashcam or doorbell footage, depending on where the accident occurred.
- Contact details from witnesses. They can provide statements later in the claims process.
- A copy of any accident reports. For example, if you suffered injuries in an accident at work, there should be an accident book to record this if your workplace has ten or more members of staff.
If you would like free advice about how to gather evidence, speak to a member of our advisory team.
Making Broken Hand Compensation Claims On A No Win No Fee Basis
A solicitor from our panel could help you make a personal injury claim for broken hand compensation.
There can be many benefits to working with a solicitor on your claim; our panel have years of experience and can answer questions you may have about the claims process, such as “How much compensation could I get for a broken hand?” and “What evidence do I need to make a claim?”
Through a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), you may be able to work with a solicitor from our panel on a No Win No Fee Basis. When you work with a solicitor under a CFA, you won’t be asked to pay any ongoing or upfront fees for their work. Alongside this, if your claim fails, you will not have to pay a fee to your solicitor for their work.
If your claim succeeds, then your solicitor will take a success fee. This fee is deducted directly from your compensation award, and is taken as a small percentage. However, there is a legal cap in place to help ensure that the larger share of your compensation stays with you.
To find out if you could work with a solicitor from our panel to claim compensation for a broken hand, get in touch today.
Contact Our Team
There’s little to lose, so why wait? You can get in touch with our team of advisers by:
- Giving them a call on 020 3870 4868. An adviser is always available to have a chat with you.
- Chat with one of our advisers via our live chat pop-up box for an instant reply.
- Filling out our online claims form. Our team of advisers will reply whenever suits you.
More Resources
- Have you suffered an allergic reaction to food due to someone else’s negligence? Our guide explores food allergic reaction claims.
- Has your whiplash claim been refused? Our article discusses what you can do in this instance.
- Are you an agency worker who’s suffered an injury that wasn’t your fault? Our guide explains the steps you can take to receive compensation.
For more help:
- How Do I Know If I’ve Broken A Bone? – If you suspect you may have a bone fracture, this NHS guide explains the signs, treatment, and recovery.
- What To Do If Your Child Has An Accident – This NHS guide explains what you need to know if your child has suffered a broken hand injury.
- Broken Arm Or Wrist – This NHS article includes information about the signs, treatment, and recovery of a broken arm or wrist injury.
Thank you for reading our article on broken hand compensation claims.
Writer HL
Checked by EI.
