Suffering an eye injury can have a serious impact on your life, both physically and financially. In light of this, you might be interested in making a personal injury claim. But how much compensation could you receive if you succeed?
In this guide, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about making a claim, including how much compensation for an eye injury you could potentially be awarded. We’ll also discuss when you could be eligible to make a personal injury claim, and how long you have to start proceedings.
Following this, we’ll discuss what kinds of evidence you need to prove your case, and how a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel could help you claim compensation.
Contact Us
We’ll try and answer any questions you might have throughout the guide, but if you’d rather speak to a member of our team, you can:
- Call us on 0800 408 7826
- Contact us online.
- Use the live chat feature.
Browse Our Guide
- How Much Compensation For An Eye Injury?
- Could You Make An Eye Injury Compensation Claim?
- How Long Do You Have To Make An Eye Injury Compensation Claim?
- What Evidence Could Help In Eye Injury Claims?
- Why Claim Eye Injury Compensation Using A No Win No Fee Solicitor?
- Read More About Claiming Personal Injury Compensation
How Much Compensation For An Eye Injury?
You’re likely wondering how much compensation for an eye injury you could receive if your claim succeeds.
However, since all claims are unique, this means that all payouts are unique. Because of this, we can’t provide an average amount or estimate, but we can detail what your payout could be made up of.
All successful eye injury claimants will receive general damages. This is the first of two potential heads of claim, and covers the physical and mental pain and suffering caused by your injuries. For example, this could include loss of vision, as well as facial scarring caused by the injury.
This heading also covers loss of amenity, which means loss of enjoyment. For example, if you were a hobbyist painter, but could no longer enjoy your hobby after losing your sight, this could be included in your compensation.
The Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) is often used by professionals when valuing compensation under this heading. This is because it provides guideline compensation amounts for a variety of injuries, with different amounts for different severities.
You can see some examples of these brackets below, but please note that these aren’t guaranteed, and the first entry isn’t from the JCG. You can also take a look at our compensation calculator for more information.
JCG Brackets
| Injury | Compensation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Serious Injuries + Special Damages | Up to £500,000+ | Multiple serious injuries and financial expenses, such as the cost of a guide dog and financial losses. |
| Total Blindness (b) | In the region of £327,940 | Total blindness |
| Loss Of Sight In One Eye With Reduced Vision In The Other (c) (i) | £117,150 to £219,400 | There is a risk of the remaining eye deteriorating. |
| Loss Of Sight In One Eye With Reduced Vision In The Other (c) (ii) | £78,040 to £129,330 | Double vision and other issues present in the remaining eye. |
| Total Loss Of One Eye (d) | £66,920 to £80,210 | Age, psychiatric consequences and cosmetic effect are all considered. |
| Complete Loss Of Sight In One Eye (e) | £60,130 to £66,920 | Scarring and deterioration in the other eye are considered. |
| Loss Of Sight In One Eye (e) | £28,900 to £48,040 | Serious but incomplete loss of vision in one eye. |
| Minor Eye Injuries (H) | £4,820 to £10,660 | Minor injuries like being hit in the eye or exposed to fumes or smoke. |
| Transient Eye Injuries (I) | £2,690 to £4,820 | Recovery occurs within a few weeks. |
Special Damages In Eye Injury Claims
Special damages is the second heading that could be awarded in eye injury compensation claims, and these cover the financial losses caused by your eye injuries. An injury like this can have a significant impact on your finances, and can cause financial strain through the cost of:
- Childcare.
- Prosthetic or cosmetic aids.
- Travel.
- Loss of earnings.
- Prescriptions.
- Guide dog.
- Home adjustments.
These costs and more could all be covered under special damages. However, when claiming for your financial losses, you will need to present evidence of them. This could include documents such as invoices and bank statements.
Contact our team today to learn more about how much compensation for an eye injury you could receive. You can also continue reading this guide to learn whether you may have a valid claim.
Could You Make An Eye Injury Compensation Claim?
So, when could you make a claim? First, you need to establish negligence. For the purposes of an eye injury claim, negligence occurs when:
- You’re owed a duty of care
- This duty is breached
- As a result, you are injured.
A duty of care is a legal responsibility for the health and safety of yourself or someone else. There are various instances where you are owed a duty of care. Some examples include:
At Work
When you’re at work, your employer owes you a duty of care. This means they need to take all reasonably practicable steps to keep you safe, per the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act (HASAWA).
They could breach this duty of care by failing to provide proper personal protective equipment (PPE), such as protective eyeglasses. This allows a piece of glass to fly from a piece of machinery and hit you in the eye, resulting in total loss of vision. In this case, you could potentially make an injury at work claim.
In Public Places
Another example could be if you suffer an eye injury after tripping on the pavement and your head hitting the floor. In public places, the person in control of that space owes you a duty of care to make the environment as safe as reasonably possible, as per the Occupiers’ Liability Act (OLA). If the local council knew that the pavement was defective but made no effort to correct it, and this caused your injuries, you could potentially make a public liability claim.
On The Roads
While you are using the roads, you owe a duty of care to other roads, and they also owe you one. The duty of care for all road users is to use the roads responsible to avoid causing a road traffic accident. Additionally, the rules and regulations of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Highway Code must be adhered to.
You could suffer a penetrating injury to your eye if the windshield of your car smashed during a head-on collision with a drunk driver.
These are only a few examples of when you could make a claim. To find out if you could be eligible, contact our team today.
How Long Do You Have To Make An Eye Injury Compensation Claim?
Generally, you have three years to make any kind of personal injury claim. This starts on the date of the accident, as per the Limitation Act 1980.
However, there are some exceptions to this rule, including:
- For those under the age of 18, the time limit is temporarily frozen. It restarts on their 18th birthday, and ends on their 21st. While the time limit is frozen, their claim can be made by a litigation friend instead.
- The time limit is removed for those who lack the mental capacity needed to claim for themselves. A litigation friend can claim on their behalf at any time. If a claim has not been made for them and the claimant regains this mental capacity, they will have three years from this date to start a claim.
How Long Does It Take To Make An Eye Injury Claim?
All eye injury claims are different, so there’s no way to tell how long your claim could take. Some of the factors that could affect your claim’s timeframe can include:
- The severity of your injuries.
- How much evidence you have.
- Whether the other party accepts liability.
- Whether or not your claim goes to court.
Contact our team today to find out if you are within the time limit to make a claim and learn more about how much compensation for an eye injury you could potentially receive.
What Evidence Could Help In Eye Injury Claims?
When you make a personal injury claim, you are responsible for proving beyond reasonable doubt that negligence occurred. This might sound stressful, but it doesn’t have to be; all you need is the right kinds of evidence.
If you choose to work with a personal injury solicitor on your claim, they can help you with this. For example, they might help you collect evidence such as:
- Pictures of your injuries or the accident site.
- Medical records or the results of an independent medical assessment.
- Witness statements.
- CCTV footage of the accident.
These are only a few examples of the different kinds of evidence that could be used to support personal injury claims. Keep reading to learn more about how a solicitor could help you, or contact us today to get started.
Why Claim Eye Injury Compensation Using A No Win No Fee Solicitor?
We have now almost come to the end of the guide. This section is going to explain how working with an expert solicitor from our panel can benefit you and your eye injury claim.
- The solicitors on our panel of experts have combined decades of experience. Using their vast amount of knowledge they can confidently handle eye injury compensation claims.
- Evidence is key, not only to the success of your case, but also to how much compensation for an eye injury you will be awarded. That is why the solicitors dedicate themselves to ensuring you have a thorough body of evidence to support your case.
- To obtain the correct eye injury compensation value they will ask you to attend an independent medical assessment to ensure your claim receives the correct amount of compensation.
- Once you have secured the contact details of any eye witnesses they can go about collecting statements in support of your claim.
- You’ll receive regular updates and detailed explanations of any legal terminology.
To find out if you are eligible to work with one of the specialist eye injury compensation solicitors on our panel all you need to do is call and speak to an advisor. They can offer you free advice and even assess the merits of your case for free.
And there are financial benefits to working with a No Win No Fee solicitor, too. Our panel of personal injury solicitors work under the terms of a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), which is a kind of No Win No Fee contract.
When you work with a solicitor under these terms, you generally:
- Don’t pay an upfront fee for their work.
- Don’t pay for their continued services.
- Don’t pay for their work if the claim fails.
If the claim succeeds, they take a small percentage of your compensation as their success fee. It is important to note that the law limits what this percentage can be.
Contact Our Team
Our team of advisors are here to help, and can answer any questions you might have about how much compensation for an eye injury you could potentially receive through a free consultation. Get in touch today to find out how a solicitor from our panel could help you by:
- Calling us on 0800 408 7826
- Contacting us online.
- Using the live chat feature.
Read More About Claiming Personal Injury Compensation
To learn more about making a personal injury claim:
- Learn how much compensation you could claim for a broken forearm.
- Find out how much compensation you could get for a broken leg.
- Get help with claiming compensation for a wrist injury.
Further Resources
- Learn when to call 999 from the NHS.
- Find out how to request CCTV footage from Gov.UK.
- Learn about the Pre-Action Protocol for personal injury claims from the Ministry of Justice.
Thank you for reading our guide on how much compensation for an eye injury you could potentially claim. If you have any further questions, please contact our advisors.