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A Guide To Eye Injury Claims
Learn more about the eye injury claims process and find out whether you’re entitled to personal injury compensation.
£85 million in compensation
A Guide To Eye Injury Claims
Learn more about the eye injury claims process and find out whether you’re entitled to personal injury compensation.
Last Updated 10th October. Eye injuries can vary from some minor irritation, temporary impairment to your vision or in some cases, permanent blindness. These types of personal injury compensation claims can arise following a workplace accident, a road traffic accident or even a public liability accident.
We understand that an eye injury can have left you unable to work, or even enjoy hobbies in the same way that you could do before the accident, which is why it’s important to make a start on the eye injury claims process as early as possible. Our solicitors here at JF Law are committed to offering you support and guidance throughout the entire claims process, whether this be explaining various legal terminology or advocating on your behalf, we are here to help you.
What You Need To Know About Eye Injury Claims:
- Will Making a Claim Impact My Job? No, if you have experienced an eye injury from an accident at work, you have a legal right to make a compensation claim, provided your employer was negligent.
- What Can I Claim For? Eye injury compensation can consider the severity of your injuries, as well as any related financial losses caused by your injury.
- Who Is Liable for My Eye Injury? This depends on where the accident occurred. In work, your employer would be liable. In a public place accident, the liability would fall to the person or organisation responsible for the premises where you were injured. Finally, if you suffered an eye injury in a road traffic accident, the other road user could be liable for your injury.
- What Are Some Common Types of Eye Injuries? Blindness, temporary loss of sight, detached retinas, or even scratched corneas.
- Should I Go to A&E After an Eye Injury? The first thing you should do after an eye injury is visit a medical professional. Seeking medical attention as early as possible can increase the chance of a full recovery, or mean that you receive the medical help you need.
You can get in touch with our advisors by contacting us using the details below:
- Call us on 0151 375 9916
- Fill out our online claim form
Am I Eligible To Make An Eye Injury Compensation Claim?
You will be eligible to make an eye injury compensation claim once you’ve shown that negligence has occurred. Negligence is when:
- A duty of care is owed to you.
- This duty of care is breached.
- You sustain an injury from this breach.
The above basis of negligence also forms the eye injury claims eligibility criteria. You will need to meet each of the above to be able to begin a claim.
There are multiple parties that can owe you a duty of care. These are:
- Employers. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states that your employer owes you a duty of care when you’re at work. They must take reasonable steps to ensure your safety in order to adhere to their duty of care.
- Occupiers. The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 states that occupiers of a public space (those in control) owe you a duty of care when you’re visiting their premises. They must take steps to ensure your reasonable safety in order to adhere to their duty of care.
- Road users. Road users all owe each other a duty of care when they’re on the road to keep one another safe. They must abide by the rules in The Highway Code and the Road Traffic Act 1988 in order to adhere to their duty of care.
So, if you believe you have suffered negligence from either a road user, your employer, or an occupier, please have a chat with us today. Additionally, we will look at exactly how duty of care can be breached below.
Common Causes Of Eye Injuries That Lead To Claims
Below are some examples of when eye injury claims can be made.
However, please don’t worry if your circumstances don’t match any of these examples. Negligence can potentially happen in many ways. So, it’s always best to contact us to confirm your eye injury compensation claim eligibility:
Accidents At Work
- You work in a factory, and your employer has not conducted any recent maintenance checks on the factory’s equipment and machinery. Due to this lack of maintenance, you work on a pallet wrapping machine that you’re unaware is faulty. The faulty machine thus ejects a sharp object at you, leaving you with facial scarring and an eye injury.
- You work in a warehouse, and your employer has asked you to use an industrial saw. However, they have not given you any Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), such as safety goggles. Because you aren’t wearing safety goggles, debris from the material you’re cutting gets in your eyes, leading to permanent impairment of vision.
Road Traffic Accidents
- As you’re driving, a drunk driver on the other side of the road swerves in front of you, leading to a head-on collision. Broken glass from the windshield hits your eye, causing total blindness.
- You’re waiting at some red traffic lights. The driver behind you, however, is speeding, meaning they cannot brake in time. They thus crash into the back of your car, leading to a rear-end collision and causing you to suffer multiple facial injuries from the impact.
Accidents In Public Places
- In a restaurant, there is a spillage, but there have been no wet floor signs displayed. You subsequently slip and fall on the wet floor, leading to blunt force trauma to the eye as you land.
- The occupier of a shop has failed to repair a shelf that they know is loose. As you’re walking underneath the shelf, the shelf collapses and falls, lands on your head and hits your eyes.
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How Much Compensation For Eye Injury Claims?
Compensation in successful eye injury claims can potentially be divided into two parts – general and special damages.
Under general damages, you’re compensated for how your eye injury has physically and psychiatrically affected you. As such, these factors are some that need to be looked at to value your general damages:
- Loss of amenity.
- Severity of pain.
- Whether a full recovery is likely.
The legal professionals valuing your general damages can use the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) and your medical evidence to help them.
The JCG publishes guideline compensation brackets for different types of injuries and illnesses.
How Compensation Is Calculated
In the table below, you can find some eye injuries and their accompanying guideline compensation brackets from the JCG. Only the top bracket isn’t from the JCG.
Please only refer to this table as a guide. Since all eye injury claims have unique circumstances, none of the brackets from the JCG can be guaranteed.
| Injury | Severity | Guideline compensation brackets | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious injuries with special damages | Serious | Up to £500,000+ | Compensation for suffering more than one serious injury with associated financial losses, such as lost earnings. |
| Injuries affecting sight | Total blindness (b) | In the region of £327,940 | Total loss of sight in both eyes. |
| Loss of sight in one eye and limited vision in the other eye (c)(i) | £117,150 to £219,400 | Whether the other eye has serious risk of further deterioration. | |
| Loss of sight in one eye and limited vision in the other eye (c)(ii) | £78,040 to £129,330 | Where there is additional problems with the other eye, such as double vision. | |
| Complete loss of one eye (d) | £66,920 to £80,210 | The compensation will depend on various factors such as the age of the claimant. | |
| Total loss of sight in one eye (e) | £60,130 to £66,920 | Where there may be some risk of sympathetic ophthalmia. | |
| Serious but incomplete loss of sight in one eye (f) | £28,900 to £48,040 | Where there is no significant risk in the other eye, but there is constant double vision. | |
| Facial disfigurement | Very severe scarring (a) | £36,340 to £118,790 | Where there’s a very disfiguring cosmetic effect and a severe psychological reaction. |
| Less significant scarring (d) | £4,820 to £16,770 | One bigger scar or multiple smaller scars, where the overall effect on appearance is ordinary. |
Special Damages And How They Relate To Your Claim
As well as general damages, you could be awarded special damages as part of your eye injury compensation. The award of special damages will ultimately aim to reimburse you for any financial losses you experienced as a result of an accident. For instance, you may have incurred medical expenses if you have required reconstructive surgery or therapy following your eye injury.
Please see the following examples of special damages that you could include in eye injury claims:
- Loss of earnings, such as a loss of future or current earnings, a bonus, a promotion or workplace benefits
- Medical expenses, such as private medical appointments and medication costs
- Home modification costs such as stair lifts and hoists
- Care costs to cover the expenses of caring for childcare or the elderly
- Travel expenses to and from appointments
It’s also essential you must also provide evidence to support any claims for special damages. As such, evidence can be provided in the following forms:
- Receipts
- Invoices
- Bank statements
- Payslips
You could also be entitled to receiving ongoing supportive payments, known as interim payments. You can only apply for these payments if the defendant admits liability or if you have a high chance of a succesful case, as these payments are taken from your final compensation amount.
To learn more about how you could receive an advance on your compensation in eye injury claims, please contact us today.
How To Make Eye Injury Claims
Before you go about making an eye injury claim, you need to seek medical attention if you haven’t already. Your medical records can show the extent and severity of your eye injury, which can be used as evidence to strengthen your case.
Then, while there’s no legal obligation to do so, you can go about finding the right eye injury solicitor to work with you. Working with a solicitor can be extremely beneficial, especially if you’ve never made a compensation claim before. This is because solicitors can do most of the hard work for you.
You are also not restricted to working with a specialist personal injury solicitor that’s local to you. Our solicitors in particular work nationwide. They can communicate with you online or through phone calls, meaning it’s not necessary for you to travel to them and vice versa.
Our specialist eye injury solicitors have many years of experience winning compensation for their clients. Please continue reading to find out exactly what services they provide.
Gathering Evidence To Prove Your Claim
A crucial part of the eye injury claims process is to provide evidence that negligence has occurred. Without evidence, the defendant could deny liability.
As such, here are the best types of evidence to have in eye injury claims:
- Dashcam or CCTV footage of the accident.
- Contact details from any witnesses, so witness statements can be provided at a later date.
- Photographs of your eye injury.
- Photographs of the accident scene. For example, if the accident was caused by a broken piece of equipment, take photographs of that piece of equipment).
- Copies of your medical records.
- A personal symptoms and medical treatment diary.
One service that our solicitors offer is that they can collect your evidence for you. Please contact us to find out whether you can connect with one of them today.
How Long You Have To Begin A Claim
The Limitation Act 1980 states that the eye injury claims time limit is 3 years, commencing from the date of the accident.
However, exceptions to this time limit will apply if the claimant lacks mental capacity or is younger than 18. To find out more about this, please contact us today.
We pride ourselves
on providing the best service
possible for our clients.
We pride ourselves on providing the best service possible for our clients.
How JF Law’s Solicitors Can Support Your Claim
Our specialist solicitors provide many services to make the claims process as easy as possible for their clients. These services include:
- Collecting all evidence.
- Explaining legal jargon.
- Sending correspondence on the client’s behalf to the defendant.
- Sorting out legal representation for the client if the claim is taken to court.
- Ensuring the compensation is correct and fair.
- Ensuring the claims time limits are adhered to.
- Connecting you to specialist support if needed.
What’s more, our solicitors all work with their clients on No Win No Fee terms, specifically with a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).
This means that you pay nothing for the services:
- Upfront.
- While the claims process is ongoing.
- If the claim is unsuccessful.
Instead, your solicitor will just keep a percentage of your compensation if the claim is successful. This percentage is small, has a legal cap, and is called the success fee.
Find out whether you can make an eye injury claim and connect with one of our No Win No Fee solicitors today by contacting us. Our team of advisors are available for a chat 24/7:
- Call 0151 375 9916
- Fill out our ‘Contact Us’ form.
More Information
Here are a few more of our personal injury claims guides:
- More details on accident at work claims and how to claim compensation against your employer.
- Learn how to make a road traffic accident claim against an uninsured driver.
- More detail on public liability claims and how to claim compensation against an occupier.
Additionally, these extra resources might be useful:
- Gov.UK – how to register your vision impairment as a disability.
- NHS – learn more about vision loss and charities that can support you.
- Gov.UK – how to claim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for having time off work as a result of your eye injury.
Thank you for reading our eye injury claims guide. Please remember that our team can answer any questions you have for free.
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