How To Make An Eye Injury At Work Claim?

Do you need to know how to make an eye injury at work claim? Was your eye injured or your vision damaged because of an accident at work caused by negligence? Perhaps you suffered sight loss or visual damage because of a lack of proper safety guards on equipment or machinery?

Eye injury at work claim guide

This guide aims to supply you with the necessary information to start an eye injury claim for compensation either on your own, or if you wish, with the help of a personal injury solicitor. Get in touch with our team to see if our panel of solicitors could help your eye injury at work claim today by:

Calling us on 0161 696 9685
Sending us a message on our ‘contact us’ option
Or access immediate free help about your eye injury at work claim through our ‘live support’ portal.

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What Are Common Eye Injuries?
You Could Get Help With Medical Expenses
You Could Get Help With Future Expenses
It Could Help To Prevent Accidents In The Future
What Is The Average Settlement For An Eye Injury At Work Claim?
Contact Us About An Eye Injury At Work Claim

What Are Common Eye Injuries?

Eye injuries can be very distressing and all the more concerning given the irreparable nature of some eye damage. As part of an overall health and safety requirement, all UK employers have a specific duty of care under the Health and Safety At Work, etc Act 1974 to protect employee safety by either removing or reducing risks or hazards as much as is practicably possible.

In addition to this, there is legislation about personal protective equipment (PPE) called the Personal Protective Equipment At Work Regulations 1992. This details which employers must provide safety goggles (amongst other things) as a way of protecting their employees from harm in the course of their job if that is applicable.

Some accidents to the eye can happen in a workplace where protective eyewear is not a requirement and still be caused by inadequate health and safety issues. Any work environment could give rise to :

A black eye from sudden collision or workplace violence
Eye irritation caused by contact with smoke or fumes or from poor ventilation
Chemical contact that can burn the eyes
Impact from falling or badly stored materials may bruise the eye or fracture the surrounding bones (orbital socket)
Corneal abrasions can be caused by grit that scratches the surface of the eye
Acute hyphema
A punctured eyeball – a serious injury that can lead to blindness after a sharp object stabs the eye
Any form of eye injury caused by incorrect PPE

Work-Related Eye Injury Statistics

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases, and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) is a piece of legislation that requires serious injuries at work to be reported. Using statistics from these reports for non-fatal injuries to employees in Great Britain by nature of injury during 2020/21 we have produced the graph below.

Our chart compares a handful of common injury types and shows that thankfully, sight reduction or loss is quite low at 106 compared to 456 amputations, 983 burns, 937 dislocations, and 788 cases of concussion or internal injury.

Source : https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/tables/ridsite.xlsx

You Could Get Help With Medical Expenses

It can be possible for you to get help with medical expenses as part of your eye injury at work claim. Immediate funds such as this are very important with eye injuries as it can be very troublesome trying to function normally with diminished vision. In this way, compensation could provide you with the financial resources to seek immediate eye surgery or essential specialist treatments and make the future a clearer place again.

You Could Get Help With Future Expenses

After an accident involving your eye or some incident that diminishes your vision, a whole array of unexpected challenges can present themselves. Learning to adapt to your surroundings as you recover may mean that you need modifications. This can be expensive and may require structural changes to your home or other long-term related costs such as eye surgeries in the weeks and months to come.

A personal injury solicitor can help you realistically predict and make a claim for these expenses in the future caused by your eye injury. In order to present a request like this as part of your compensation, it’s important to have them backed up with documented estimates. A solicitor can help you gather information like this and include it in your claim. Speak to our team for further advice.

It Could Help To Prevent Accidents In The Future

If you are wondering why making an eye injury claim is important, there are several very good reasons. As mentioned, it can be a way of making sure that you personally are fully compensated for your injuries and financial damage, helping you recover more quickly.

In addition to this, it may help you hold the other party to account in a way that stops an eye accident like this from happening to someone else. It may even help assist your employer to implement better practices at work which is to everyone’s advantage.

Successful claims will hinder on on you being able to show how the duty of care your employer owes you was breached. And how this negligence caused your eye injury at work.

To have you case valued and validated for free call our expert advisors today and through an initial consultation that is free of charge you can gain knowledge in to the accident at work claiming process.

What Is The Average Settlement For An Eye Injury At Work Claim?

It’s important to note there is no such thing as an ‘average’ compensation payout for an eye injury. Each amount may vary according to the specifics of the injuries involved. But there is a starting point for calculating personal injury claim amounts that takes two heads of damages into account:

General damages are amounts that are based on your physical or psychological injuries. A publication called the Judicial College Guidelines is an index of guideline compensation brackets used to determine pain, suffering, and loss of amenity. It lists amounts that may be applicable depending on severity, as our table shows:

Eye injury and severity	JC Guideline award	notes
total blindness (b)	In the region of £252,180	complete sight loss
loss of sight in one eye and reduced in the other (c) (i)	£90,100 to £168,730	risk of further deterioration in the other eye
total loss of one eye (c) (ii)	£60,010 to £99,440	reduced vision in remaining eye, double vision problems
total loss of one eye (d)	£51,460 to £61,690	psychiatric harm, age of victim and cosmetic consequences
loss of sight in one eye that is complete (e)	£46,240 to £51,460	scarring, sympathetic ophthalmia
incomplete loss of sight in one eye (f)	£22,230 to £36,960	incomplete loss of vision in one eye but no risk to remaining eye.
minor eye injury (g)	£8,550 to £19,690	damage that is minor but permanent,
minor eye injuries (h)	£3,710 to £8,200	impact or smoke or fume injuries.
transient injuries (i)	£2,070 to £3,710	a recovery that takes place within a few weeks

An impartial medical assessment can be a vital way of showing exactly what injuries you have sustained. A personal injury lawyer can help arrange an assessment like this with a GP or specialist on your behalf and whilst not obligatory, a medical assessment can go a long way in supporting your eye injury at work claim. Again, it’s important to note that these amounts are also only suggestions, not guaranteed amounts.

Special damages

Special damages are amounts calculated using documented proof of financial loss. So, if your eye injury meant you needed surgery not available on the NHS and you can prove these essential costs, it can be possible to have them included as part of your eye injury at work compensation claim. Other expenses may apply such as:

Loss of earnings
Adaptations to your home or vehicle
Glasses, contact lenses, or ophthalmic needs
Travel costs to hospital or work

Proof is essential to uphold a request for special damages in your eye injury at work claim. Also, the out-of-pocket expense in question must be related to your injuries. Call our team and discuss what other expenses could form part of your compensation request or see our personal injury compensation calculator to see what your claim could be worth.

Contact Us About An Eye Injury At Work Claim

You may be unsure about the prospect of suing your employer for eye damage. Could you manage a case like this whilst trying to recover? Is it expensive to get legal representation? A No Win No Fee or Conditional Fee Agreement could be the answer to these questions.

While you are certainly entitled to represent yourself in a case like this, the complexity and attention it deserves are things that are better left to a personal injury specialist. Hiring one under a No Win No Fee agreement enables you to do this at no upfront cost.

In addition, there are no fees to pay as the case develops and only a maximum amount of 25% of the settlement becomes due to cover solicitors’ costs if the case wins. Should the case fail, your solicitors require no fees at all.

There is a three-year time limit for personal injury claims so why not start yours today. Get in touch by:

Calling us about your eye injury at work claim on 0161 696 9685
Sending us a message on our ‘contact us’ option
Or use our ‘live support’ portal.

Learn More About How Personal Injury Solicitors Could Help You

Below are other resources to help your eye injury at work claim

In addition to this, guidance from the NHS about eye injury
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) offer support after vision loss
Lastly, advice about eye surgery on the NHS

Below, you can find links to lots more guides on accidents at work:

Accident At Work Claims

Road Traffic Accident Claims

Public Place Claims

Medical Negligence Claims

Personal Injury Claims

Eye Injury At Work Compensation Claim Specialists

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