By Danielle Nicholson. Last Updated 30th October 2023. Welcome to our guide to personal injury compensation amounts. In it, we discuss the types of damages you could receive for different accidents and injuries, and give some pain and suffering settlement examples for UK cases, as well as showing you what other damages you could claim. If you’ve been involved in an accident and considered making a compensation claim, then you may have asked “How is a personal injury claim calculated?”, this guide should help you understand how courts and lawyers go about this.
Advice.co.uk offers free legal advice for anybody considering making a compensation claim and works with no win no fee solicitors to ensure clients receive the full amount of compensation they deserve.
If you’d like to begin a claim, then please call 0161 696 9685 today and speak with one of our specially trained advisors about your accident and how it was caused.
If you’d like to know more first, then please carry on reading and we’ll try to answer any questions you may have about compensation amounts and how they’re calculated.
Calculating personal injury compensation
Select A Section
- Pain And Suffering Settlement Examples In The UK
- Can I Claim Personal Injury Compensation?
- How Long Do I Have To Claim Compensation?
- How Do I Make A Personal Injury Claim?
- Making A Personal Injury Claim With A No Win No Fee Solicitor
- Contact Us Now About Personal Injury Compensation Amounts
- More Information On Personal Injury Compensation Amounts
Pain And Suffering Settlement Examples In The UK
If you suffered an injury, you may want to know more about how compensation is calculated. Compensation for a successful personal injury claim may consist of two parts: general and special damages.
General damages are the part of your settlement that compensates for the physical pain and mental suffering you have experienced as a result of your injury. When valuing this part of personal injury claims, legal professionals may refer to the guideline compensation brackets found in a document called the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). The JCG lists potential compensation amounts for various types of injuries.
In our table below, we take a look at a few figures that can be found in the JCG’s 16th edition. As every claim is unique, we’ve only provided the table for your guidance.
| Body Part | Severity | Range of Compensation Payment | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ankle | Very Severe | £50,060 to £69,700 | Limited and unusual injuries, such as a transmalleolar fracture along with extensive soft tissue damage that causes deformity and may later require a below-knee amputation. |
| Hand | Serious | £29,000 to £61,910 | The hand is left with about 50 per cent capacity, such as several finger amputations that are rejoined but it is clawed, clumsy or unsightly or a partial palm amputation. |
| Wrist | (a) | £47,620 to £59,860 | Total loss of wrist function. |
| Shoulder | Severe | £19,200 to £48,030 | The most serious shoulder injuries which result in pain, numbness, restricted movement or paralysis |
| Foot | Serious | £24,990 to £39,200 | Continuous pain from traumatic arthritis or risk of future arthritis as well as a prolonged treatment and fusion surgery risk. |
| Arm | Less Severe | £19,200 to £39,170 | Substantial recovery from significant disabilities has occurred or is expected. |
| Back | Moderate (i) | £27,760 to £38,780 | Back injuries in this category can include ligament or soft tissue damage, lumbar vertebrae, some constant pain and any discomfort. |
| Leg | Less serious (i) | £17,960 to £27,760 | Incomplete recovery from fractures or a serious soft tissue injury. |
| Knee | Moderate (i) | £14,840 to £26,190 | Instability, wasting and weakness or other mild disability from dislocation or torn cartilage or meniscus. |
In some cases, injured parties could also receive special damages as part of their settlement. Special damages compensate you for any financial losses that have been caused as a result of your injury.
Here are a few examples of the financial losses you could be compensated for:
- Medical costs, such as money spent on prescriptions or therapy.
- Your loss of earnings if you required time off work to recover.
- Home help while recovering from your injuries, such as the cost of a cleaner or childminder.
- Travel costs to attend medical appointments.
If you would like to find out how much personal injury compensation you could potentially receive in a successful claim, speak with one of the advisors from our team.
Can I Claim Personal Injury Compensation?
There are various daily situations where you could suffer an injury. These include:
- A public liability accident – While you are in a public space, such as a gym, salon, park or shopping centre, the organisation or individual in control of that space owes you a duty of care to ensure your reasonable safety. This is set out under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. If a breach in this duty of care resulted in your injury, you could be eligible to seek personal injury compensation.
- An accident at work – As set out in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA), your employer owes you a duty of care. This means that they must take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work. If your employer fails to adhere to applicable health and safety legislation and you suffer an injury as a result, you might be eligible to seek workplace accident compensation.
- A road traffic accident – Road users owe a duty of care to each other. This means that they are expected to navigate the roads in a way that prevents damage and injury to themselves and others. As part of this duty, they need to adhere to the Road Traffic Act 1988 and any relevant rules and regulations found in the Highway Code.
In order to have strong grounds to seek compensation, you must be able to satisfy the personal injury claims criteria. This means that you need to prove that a relevant third party breached the duty of care they owed to you, and this breach resulted in your injuries.
If you need any help understanding how compensation is calculated, please speak with an advisor from our team.
How Long Do I Have To Claim Compensation?
As set out in the Limitation Act 1980, the time limit for starting a claim for personal injury compensation is three years. This time limit usually begins from the date of the accident that injured you.
The time limit can work differently in some circumstances. For instance, if a child has been injured, then the time limit is paused until the day of their 18th birthday. Before that day arrives, a claim could be made on the child’s behalf by a court-appointed litigation friend. On the day the injured party turns 18, they will have three years to start their own claim if one hasn’t already been made for them.
If the injured party lacks the mental capacity to start a personal injury claim, then the three-year time limit is indefinitely suspended. When this applies, a litigation friend could start a claim on their behalf. If the injured party were to regain this mental capacity later and a claim hasn’t already begun, they will have three years to start a claim from the date of recovery.
You can contact our team of advisors if you still have any questions about time limits for starting a claim or other matters such as calculating personal injury compensation.
How Do I Make A Personal Injury Claim?
If you are seeking personal injury compensation, you must collect sufficient evidence to support your claim. This will need to prove liability for the accident and the injuries you suffered.
Here are a few examples of the evidence you could submit:
- The contact information of anyone who saw the accident. This is so anyone who witnessed the incident can give a statement later into the claims process.
- Footage of the incident, such as from a dashcam or mobile phone.
- A copy of any medical letters from hospitals or your GP containing information about the injury, including its nature and any treatment you needed.
- Photographs from the scene or of any visible injuries you suffered (or both).
One of the advisors from our team can give you free advice about obtaining supporting evidence. Get in touch using the details at the top of the page.
Making A Personal Injury Claim With A No Win No Fee Solicitor
A No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel could help you during the personal injury settlement process. They can help you gather key evidence that can be used to support your personal injury claim for compensation.
Furthermore, the solicitors on our panel can offer a Conditional Fee Agreement, which is a type of No Win No Fee agreement. This means they typically won’t ask for a payment upfront whilst the arrangement also covers any ongoing costs.
Under this arrangement, you are only expected to pay for your solicitor’s work if your claim succeeds. They’ll then take a success fee from your compensation, but this is capped by law to avoid you being overcharged.
Find out more about how to get in touch with us in our next section. We’ll also discuss how you can get a free, no-obligation consultation from our advisors.
- Telephone: Call us today on 0161 696 9685 and speak with one of our advisers who can answer any queries you may have.
- Email: Send a message to [email protected] – include brief details of your accident and we’ll get back to you at a convenient time.
- Online: Use this online form to submit your details and we’ll get back to you.
When you get in touch, we’ll listen to the details of your accident, your injuries and how they have impacted upon you. Then we’ll offer you an honest assessment of whether we think you have a good chance of claiming compensation for your injuries. If so, we’ll begin your claim by connecting you with a no win no fee solicitor to take your case forward.
More Information On Personal Injury Compensation Amounts
Hopefully you now understand how a personal injury claim is calculated and have decided whether to make your own claim or not. For your information, here are some more useful articles and guides which may be relevant:
- How to Make a Personal Injury Claim – Now you have read our advice on how to calculate compensation, this guide explains how to make your personal injury claim.
- Head Injuries and Concussion – A guide, from the NHS, regarding the symptoms and types of head injuries that can occur.
- Broken Bones – Another guide by the NHS, but this one is about broken and fractured bones including the types of breaks that can occur.
- Health and Safety Executive – The organisation that governs health and safety at work with specific regulations and guides for employers to ensure the safety of their employees.
If you would like further examples of case studies to review other pain and suffering settlement examples for UK claims, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We would be delighted to assist you in getting the information you’re looking for and helping you get the personal injury compensation amounts you deserve.