By Lewis Smalls. Last updated 14th December 2022. Have you suffered an injury that may not have been your fault? Are you looking for free legal advice to calculate how much compensation for a broken thumb you could claim?
This article will explain how to make a personal injury claim and how to find the perfect personal injury solicitor that fits your needs. It will also provide an illustrative, fictional case study to help demonstrate the claims process.
If you read through this article and feel you need more advice about your thumb injury claim, our team of advisers are available 24/7 on 0800 408 7826 to offer you free legal advice. Alternatively, you can contact them through our contact page and they will get back to you at your earliest convenience.
If you’d like free legal advice regarding your personal injury claim immediately, you can chat to our team through our live chat pop-up box. A member of our expert team will respond instantly to discuss what compensation you could expect for a broken thumb, before forwarding you on to our panel of lawyers.
About Broken Thumb Injuries
- A Guide On How Much Compensation For A Broken Thumb Could Be Claimed
- What Is A Broken Or Fractured Thumb?
- Broken Thumb – Example Scenarios
- Get Free Legal Advice On Making An Accident In A Public Place Claim
- Case Study: How Much Compensation For A Broken Thumb Could Someone Be Awarded— £20,000?
- Special Damages Vs General Damages
- Calculating How Much Compensation For A Broken Thumb You Could Claim
- No Win No Fee Compensation For A Broken Thumb
- Get In Touch For Free Legal Advice
- Related Services And Guides
- Frequently Asked Questions About Public Accident Claims
A Guide On How Much Compensation For A Broken Thumb Could Be Claimed
Before beginning your personal injury claim, you may have some queries surrounding:
- What compensation you could expect for a broken thumb
- How to file an injury compensation claim
- How much broken thumb compensation you could receive
- Accidents in a public place claim time limits
This article will convey what you need to know regarding a thumb injury claim and how much compensation for a broken thumb you may receive.
Additionally, we will explore the law surrounding the duty of care that exists to protect and safeguard you from injuries in public spaces. A public place is anywhere accessible to the public, such as supermarkets, streets, roads, leisure centres and shopping centres.
Many people who file public injury claims experience confusion around who has the duty of care to safeguard them. Some people who suffer public accidents hold the local council responsible. However, other scenarios mean other local authorities or landlords have been negligent. Breaching a duty of care can cause a public injury, which could make the occupier (the party in control of the premises or space) liable for negligence claims.
Furthermore, this article will discuss No Win No Fee agreements, also known as Conditional Fee Agreements. We can explore this even further when you contact our team of advisers.
What Is A Broken Or Fractured Thumb?
Our thumbs are arguably one of our most vital assets. Without thumbs, we can struggle to open doors, pick up objects and write.
When a strong enough force impacts the thumb, it can crush or fracture it. A person with such injuries would therefore have a broken thumb. The bones that could break include the:
- Distal phalanx (tip)
- Proximal phalanx (from the tip to the webbing area)
- Thumb metacarpal (from the webbing area to the base of the hand)
The NHS states that if you have thumb pain, you should:
- Use an ice pack
- Remove jewellery from your thumb if it seems to be swelling
- Purchase a splint from a pharmacy/supermarket and apply it to your thumb for support
- Avoid activities that hurt your thumb, for example, typing
If you suspect you have a broken thumb, the NHS recommends you attend A&E or call 111 immediately. A medical professional may:
- Inject you with a local anaesthetic and attempt to straighten your finger
- Place your finger in a splint or cast to prevent it from moving
- Give you antibiotics, if the finger is cut, to prevent infection
Broken Thumb – Example Scenarios
You may have sustained an injury to your thumb in a public place or a broken thumb at work. If so, compensation might be owed to you. However, your injuries will need to have resulted from an accident caused by a third party breaching the duty of care they owed you. This is known as negligence.
Examples of how a broken thumb could be sustained can include:
- You might be in a supermarket and slip on a wet floor that was not signposted, subsequently falling to the floor and hitting your thumb upon impact.
- Your employer may have failed to maintain the equipment in the workplace causing you to sustain a crushed thumb injury after getting your hand trapped in a faulty piece of machinery.
Are you wondering what to do with a broken thumb that was sustained as a result of negligence? Our advisors can offer free friendly advice 7 days a week and could put you in touch with an experienced personal injury solicitor from our panel. Get in touch for more information.
Occupiers’ duty of care and liability
Anyone who controls a public place needs to ensure there is as little risk as possible to the public. This can be done by:
- Decreasing hazards
- Considering the safety of the public and anyone who has access to their land (whether invited or not)
Anyone who is in control of premises, land, or property has a duty of care to safeguard and protect the public from harm.
The occupier should be aware of this duty of care and understand why it is important. Moreover, they should be fully educated on how to protect people who access their land.
How could occupiers breach their duty of care?
The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 outlines that anyone responsible for public space must reasonably ensure the health and safety of visitors (whether invited or not) is protected.
Carrying out a regular system of inspection to ensure there are no hazards, such as a manhole that someone could fall into, is a good way to do this.
If the occupier doesn’t adhere to this law and someone suffers an accident and injuries as a consequence, they have breached their duty of care and could have a negligence claim filed against them.
Some examples of health and safety hazards in a public place are:
- Unclear fire exits
- Insufficient crowd control in busy places
- Broken pavements
- Lack of wet floor signs
- Bad hygiene in restaurants
- Sharp edges on shelves
Get Free Legal Advice On Making An Accident In A Public Place Claim
How much compensation for a broken thumb you could claim is entirely dependent on the severity of your fractured thumb and the negative impact it has on your physical, mental, and financial well-being.
When you speak to our legal team, they will explore your injury compensation claim. After they have learned more about your thumb injury claim, they may forward you to our panel of expert lawyers who can discuss No Win No Fee agreements with you and calculate how much compensation for a broken thumb you could receive.
Please note that there is a three-year time limit for when you can file a personal injury claim. That is three years from when you suffered the injury or from when you discovered the injury was caused by someone else’s negligence.
However, if you are under 18, the three-year time limit begins on the day of your 18th birthday. Alternatively, a friend/family member can act as a litigation friend and pursue the personal injury claim before you turn 18.
Case Study: How Much Compensation For A Broken Thumb Could Someone Be Awarded—£25,000?
How did Mr Biggins break their thumb?
Mr Biggins was leaving his local leisure centre when the automatic door shut too soon and trapped part of his hand, resulting in injuries to the thumb.
After the accident, Mr Biggins experienced severe throbbing pain in his thumb, as well as swelling and redness. He attended A&E immediately, where they diagnosed him with a distal phalanx fracture.
This meant that he couldn’t work as he spent his days in a warehouse carrying heavy boxes, resulting in a huge loss of income. Mr Biggins became increasingly more angry as time went on, as he realised the accident could have been prevented if the leisure centre had simply fixed the door that they knew was not working properly.
Due to someone else’s negligence, he had to suffer the consequences. He decided to speak to a No Win No Fee lawyer regarding making a personal injury claim against the supermarket for breaching their duty of care.
Together, Mr Biggins and his personal injury solicitor concluded that his case was strong enough to file a personal injury claim against the defendant. His lawyer then calculated how much compensation for a broken thumb he could receive, and gathered the evidence to use against the defendant.
What compensation payout were they awarded?
Based on the Judicial College Guidelines, Mr Biggins was awarded £15,700 in general damages as his thumb fracture was severe enough to introduce permanent nerve damage. This resulted in his thumb being stiff and extra sensitive to the cold.
Breaking down their compensation settlement
| Type of Special Damages: | Includes: | How Much?: |
|---|---|---|
| Travel Expenses | Mr Biggins had to take the bus to and from hospital/GP appointments. | £150 |
| Medication/Prescriptions | He had to take medication for his thumb pain and bought spare splints and bandages. | £100 |
| Loss of Earnings | Mr Biggins had to take 2 months off work whilst his thumb healed. | £1,500 |
| Further Financial Losses | He lost his family skiing holiday deposit. Moreover, he had bought a new gaming console a few weeks before the accident, which now he couldn’t play for months due to the thumb pain. | £2,600 |
Mr Biggins’ case is purely an illustrative case study. Its purpose is to offer guidance through the personal injury claims process and assess how much compensation for a broken thumb someone could receive. It is based on past evidence from personal injury claims.
Special Damages Vs General Damages
General damages compensate for the actual injury and the effect it has had on your physical and mental health.
On the other hand, special damages compensate for the financial aspects of your life that the injury has impacted. For example, you may have to take time off work or pay to travel to medical appointments.
In the case study above, Mr Biggins’ special damages are travel expenses, medications/prescriptions, loss of earnings and further financial losses.
It is vital to be aware that you cannot receive special damages without evidence. An example of evidence you could use is bus tickets, to prove you paid to travel to and from medical appointments.
Calculating How Much Compensation For A Broken Thumb You Could Claim
We’ve explored special damages; however, general damages differ slightly.
General damages within a public negligence claim are compensation for the injury itself and the psychological, physical and general impact it has had on your life. Some articles use a personal injury calculator. However, as every situation is different, we don’t believe that would be helpful or accurate in this instance.
The easiest way to assess how much compensation for a broken thumb you could claim is to give our team a call so we can get to know your situation better. You can also contact our team through our contact page, where they will get back to you whenever you’re ready.
However, if you’d like an instant reply you can contact them via our live chat pop-up box and get chatting to a member of our team straight away. If you do decide to contact them, you are not obliged to continue with our services.
But, if you would like to continue the personal injury claims process, our team can forward you on to our expert panel of lawyers who can discuss No Win No Fee agreements with you.
No Win No Fee Compensation For A Broken Thumb
No Win No Fee agreements, also referred to as ‘Conditional Fee Agreements’, are an agreement between you and your lawyer. It means you won’t have to pay any upfront fees to your public injury solicitor.
If your case fails, you won’t have to pay any of the fees the lawyer has worked for. However, if your case succeeds, your lawyer can deduct a legally capped, small percentage of the compensation. Your lawyer would determine this percentage with you before you sign anything, and it is a fee to reimburse them for their hard work.
No Win No Fee agreements are a common agreement that many claimants opt for. There’s little to lose if you progress with your claim as you only pay solicitor fees if your case succeeds.
Get in touch with us today to begin your personal injury claims process. We can put you through to our panel of lawyers who can discuss No Win No Fee agreements with you.
Get In Touch For Free Legal Advice
We hope this article has helped you clarify whether your fractured thumb injury occurred due to someone else’s negligence. However, we cannot help you gain compensation until we learn more about your injury.
Have you decided you’d like to begin the claims process? Would you like to discuss how much compensation for a broken thumb injury you could be entitled to?
Contact us today so we can explore your case further and potentially help you gain the compensation you deserve. Our team can have a chat with you before putting you through to our panel of lawyers.
The quickest way to contact us is to:
- Call us on 0800 408 7826.
- Chat to a member of our team instantly through our live chat pop-up box.
- Write to us via our contact page. We will get back to you at whatever time best suits you.
Related Services And Guides
Ankle Fractures Information for Patients: Is a broken thumb not the only injury you’ve suffered? This NHS guide gives you all the relevant information regarding the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of an ankle fracture.
Broken Ankle Guide: If you have suffered a broken ankle injury, this NHS guide tells you everything you need to do to ensure a speedy, smooth recovery.
Health and Safety Executive: If you have suffered an injury at work that may not have been your fault, this guide includes statistics regarding work accidents and legislation surrounding employers’ duty of care.
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974: Here is the information on the legislation surrounding accidents at work and how employers can breach their duty of care.
Check out more of our personal injury claims guides below:
- Personal injury claims
- How Much Compensation for a Back Injury
- Compensation Claims for a broken arm
- How much compensation for a broken foot in a public place
- Compensation for a broken foot
- How much compensation for a broken forearm
- Payout examples for a broken leg in a public place
- Compensation Claims for a broken leg
- Payout awards for a broken wrist
- How much compensation for a crushed ankle injury
- Compensation Claims for a facial scar
- How much compensation for a foot injury
- Compensation amounts for a fractured jaw case study and guide on fractured jaw claims
- How much compensation for a fractured leg
- Payout amounts for a torn Achilles tendon
- How much compensation for a wrist injury
- Compensation Claims for a broken ankle injury in a public place
Frequently Asked Questions About Public Accident Claims
Can I claim if I’m unemployed?
Yes. You do not need to be in employment to make a negligence claim. If the injury happened in a public place and it wasn’t your fault, you could make a negligence claim against the occupier.
What evidence do I need?
If you suffer a workplace injury, you should complete the work accident book as soon as you’re able to. This is in order to provide evidence such as the date, time and how you suffered the injury at work. Places accessible to the public, such as supermarkets, should also have accident logbooks. Additionally, you should use any witnesses. It would also be helpful to provide medical notes conveying the severity of the injuries you sustained.
How do I prove any financial losses?
To qualify for special damages, you will need to provide evidence. Examples of evidence you could provide are bus tickets or bank statements. These can prove you have spent money travelling to and from medical appointments.
Written by IE
Checked by TH
Thank you for reading our guide to how much compensation for a broken thumb you could claim.