This guide discusses hand injury compensation amounts in the UK. We will tell you the circumstances in which you can make a claim and how compensation will be calculated.
If you have injured your hand and it was someone else’s fault, you could be able to recover damages. This could be after a car crash, an accident whilst working or even an accident in a public place. Our guide will aim to answer any questions you may have about how to claim.
You can discuss your personal injury claim with our dedicated team of advisors at any point. They offer a free, no-obligation assessment and if your claim is valid, they could refer you to an expert solicitor from our panel to represent you. Find out more:
- Call on 0800 408 7825
- Contact us online
- Use the live discussion feature for instant support.
Jump To A Part Of Our Hand Injury Guide
- Compensation Amounts For Hand Injuries
- Common Causes Of Hand Injury Claims
- Types Of Hand Injuries You Can Claim For
- Can I Claim For An Arm Or Wrist Injury On Top Of My Hand Injury Claim?
- How To Start Your Compensation Claim
- How Our Panel Of Solicitors Can Help Your Case
- More Information
Compensation Amounts For Hand Injuries
The compensation awarded in a successful claim can be drawn from two areas called general and special damages. Physical pain and suffering, loss of amenity, and any permanent disability are valued under general damages. Special damages are for financial losses.
How Payouts Are Calculated
The groups who calculate a figure for general damages often look at medical evidence to guide them. They may also refer to documents like the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This resource provides suggested award bracket amounts for a variety of common injuries based on how severe they are.
The table below uses excerpts from the JCG to illustrate. It is important to note that these amounts act only as an approximate guideline. Every personal injury claim will have factors that make it unique. Furthermore, the first amount shown is not taken from the JCG, and the JCG are only relevant to cases in England and Wales:
Compensation Guidelines
| INJURY | SEVERITY | JC GUIDELINE AWARDS | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple, serious injury level with special damages. | Serious | Up to £500,000 plus | More than one type of serious injury and recognition of medical costs, loss of earnings and care under special damages |
| Hand | (a) Total (or effective) loss of both hands | £171,680 up to £245,900 | Injuries that render hands useless with no option for prosthetic use. |
| (c) Total (or effective) loss of one hand | £117,360 up to £133,810 | Typically crush injuries or where surgical amputation removes most fingers and part of the palm. | |
| (d) Amputation of middle, index and/or ring fingers | £75,550 up to £110,750 | Cases that the hand extremely weak and virtually useless. | |
| (b) Serious | £68,070 up to £103,200 | Permanent damage and loss of function to both hands. | |
| (f) Severe fracture to fingers | Up to £44,840 | Fractures that may cause partial deformity, weakened grip and loss of sensation. | |
| (e) Serious | £35,390 up to £75,550 | Injuries that reduce the use of that hand by half. | |
| (g) Less Serious | £17,640 up to £35,390 | Crush injuries that significantly impair function with or without surgery. | |
| (h) Moderate | £6,910 up to £16,200 | Crushes, penetrative wounds and deep lacerations where surgery has failed leaving disability. |
Special Damages And When You Can Claim Them
The second component of a successful compensation award amount can be special damages. This looks at the financial harm caused to the person because of their hand injuries. Evidence is needed to claim special damages, so keep hold of any of the following:
- Wage slips that show how your income has suffered (or how you will suffer loss of earnings in the future).
- Proof of any amounts paid to others for domestic care.
- Tickets and receipts that show travel expenditures.
- Medical bills for essential treatments.
- Changes that needed to be made to your car or home to help you manage.
When viewed as a whole, special damages could represent a significant part of the overall claim. If you’d like more free information on general and special damages or any part of the hand injury compensation claim process, please speak to the team now.
Common Causes Of Hand Injury Claims
Hand injuries can happen in a number of ways, and a compensation claim could be based on the following three criteria:
- A duty of care was owed to you at the time of injury.
- The duty of care was breached.
- Because of this, you suffered harm (both physical and psychological can apply).
All three points must be met to move ahead with an eligible compensation claim. Let’s look at some of the circumstances in which you could be owed a duty of care.
Road Traffic Accidents
All road users need to practice a duty of care to each other. To comply properly with this, they must adhere to legislation called the Road Traffic Act 1988 and further obligations laid out in the Highway Code. Road traffic accidents can happen if these rules are not followed.
Public Liability Accidents
Third parties in control of areas accessible to the general public owe them a duty of care, as outlined in the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. They must implement reasonable measures to prevent the public from encountering harm. This duty applies if facilities and premises are being used as lawfully intended.
Accidents At Work
All UK employers have a duty of care to employees, as stated in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA). This legislation requires them to take proportionate and reasonable actions to ensure that employees are protected from harm while they work.
If an employer fails to follow health and safety rules (such as neglecting to ensure workplace tools are safe to use) and an employee is injured, the employer could be liable to pay the worker damages.
Examples Of Potential Claims
Here are some examples of scenarios that could make a strong claim for compensation:
- If an employer fails to ensure the machinery in their factory is working properly, it can malfunction, causing serious soft tissue damage to workers’ hands.
- Floors in a shopping area are left wet and without warning signs, which causes an employee to slip and damage their hand or wrist in the fall.
- A hot surface area in a restaurant is without warning signs or guards, and diners burn their hands on it as a result.
- There is a defective paving slab in the street, and the council should have repaired it, but they failed to do so. A member of the public trips over and breaks their hand when they fall.
- A drunk driver causes a collision with another motorist. Damage to the wrist and hands are part of multiple injuries.
Your circumstances may be different. To discover if your claim is eligible and what hand injury compensation amounts in the UK might apply to you, call the team.
Types Of Hand Injuries You Can Claim For
There are a range of hand injuries that can be suffered. These include:
- A broken hand
- Fractured fingers
- Finger dislocations
- Sprains, strains and soft tissue injuries
- Damaged tendons
- Nerve damage
- Amputation of the hand or fingers
- Degloving injuries
- Crush injuries
- Cuts, lacerations and scarring
As stated earlier in this guide, the compensation for individual injuries is different. To see how much you could potentially claim, you can contact an advisor.
Can I Claim For An Arm Or Wrist Injury On Top Of My Hand Injury Claim?
It is possible to put forward a claim for multiple injuries. If you suffered wrist damage as part of the same accident and injury, it could be included in your claim. A medical report can be obtained as part of the claims process, which would detail the injuries you suffered and the prognosis for them.
If you’d like more details on submitting a claim for multiple injuries, reach out to our advisory team on the contact options above. You could get a more precise idea of hand injury compensation amounts in the UK for injuries like yours.
How To Start Your Compensation Claim
Once you are satisfied that your hand injury claim meets the criteria we looked at above, you can take practical action to start building your claim. The first action is to ensure that you receive appropriate medical care, as even a minor injury can create complications in the future. You should also report your injury to a supervisor or other designated person.
Gather Relevant Evidence
Perhaps the most important action you can take is to start collecting evidence that supports your claim of negligence as the cause of your injuries. Some examples of this include:
- Request CCTV footage, dash cam or helmet cam footage from the area.
- Ask any eyewitnesses if they can provide their contact details. Should a solicitor represent you, they can request a supporting statement from these people without holding up the claim.
- Get copies of medical records that provide essential insight into the level of injury you suffered. (X-rays, scans and any reports from specialists).
- Take photos of your hand injuries.
- Obtain a copy of any accident book entry made.
Our team can offer more information about collecting evidence if you get in touch. You could be directed to a personal injury solicitor with decades of expertise gathering evidence that duty of care was breached. Call to learn more.
How Our Panel Of Solicitors Can Help Your Case
We work with experienced personal injury solicitors, and those on our panel can:
- Help you gather evidence that supports your claim like witness statements and medical reports.
- Calculate exactly the right amount of general and special damages that take into account past, current and predicted losses.
- Take care of all court correspondence and meet the relevant deadlines.
- Explain legal jargon or terminology.
- Argue with the other side for the highest compensation on your behalf.
- Confidently represent you at every stage of the personal injury claims process.
All these excellent legal services can be offered to eligible readers through a type of No Win No Fee contract. The solicitors on our panel regularly offer a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) because it provides so many advantages to those seeking compensation:
- Zero immediate solicitors fees.
- No solicitors fees as work on the claim moves ahead.
- No fees for completed solicitor’s services should the claim fail.
- A successful claim outcome requires a small percentage deduction from the compensation paid to your solicitor as a success fee.
- A legal limit applies to this percentage.
- Therefore, under an agreement like this, the person claiming always receives most of their compensation.
Why not get guidance about hand injury compensation amounts in the UK from us? See if an expert personal injury lawyer from our panel could help you better understand how much compensation you’re owed. Simply:
- Call on 0800 408 7825
- Contact us online to claim compensation on a No Win No Fee basis.
- Use the live discussion feature for instant support.
More Information
As well as guides on hand injury compensation amounts in the UK, these other resources may be useful:
- This guide looks at how public liability claims.
- Here you can read about accident at work claims.
- Also, read about how to make a personal injury claim for depression
External help:
- Read Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics on workplace accidents.
- In addition to this, hand pain guidance from the NHS about minor and more serious hand injuries.
- Lastly, when to call 999.
In conclusion, thank you for your interest in our guide about hand injury compensation amounts in the UK. If the team can help in any other way, please connect by phone, email or through the live discussion window below.
