A leg injury could be as simple as cuts and bruises or as extreme as a partial or even full amputation. Depending on the severity of the injury, you could be left with pain and suffering and even a disability. In this guide, we look at when you could make a leg injury claim and how much compensation you could get.
We will look at who you could claim against, whether your accident was at work, on the road or in a public place. There is also an explanation of how compensation may be calculated and the factors which could influence the size of your damages. You can also find information on how leg injuries could occur and the types of leg injuries you could claim for.
Later in our guide we look at how the claims process works, covering the evidence you need, how long you have to claim and how to get help from a specialist a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel.
Please contact our team to find out if you are eligible to make a personal injury claim.
- Phone an advisor now on 0800 408 7825.
- Complete our contact form to request a message
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Browse Our Guide
- Am I Eligible To Make A Leg Injury Claim?
- Average Leg Injury Compensation Amounts
- Common Causes Of Leg Injuries That Lead To Claims
- Different Types Of Leg Injuries You Can Claim For
- How To Start A Leg Injury Claim
- How Our Panel Of Solicitors Can Help You Claim
- More Information
Am I Eligible To Make A Leg Injury Claim?
If you (or a loved one) suffered a broken leg or other injury, you may wonder if you could make a leg injury claim. In order to make a leg injury compensation claim, you must meet the eligibility criteria. They are:
- Another party had a legal duty of care to you. This party may be an individual or organisation.
- This party failed to uphold their duty of care.
- You suffered a leg injury due to this failure.
You can be owed a duty of care in many everyday scenarios. This could be as you use the roads, are at work, or whilst visiting public premises. We will look at these scenarios in more depth later in this guide.
Reach out to our team to find out whether you are eligible to make a leg injury compensation claim.
Average Leg Injury Compensation Amounts
If your compensation claim is successful, you will be awarded compensation. Leg injury compensation amounts vary according to the type of injury suffered and how severe it is. Your final settlement may be made up of two heads of claim. These are called general and special damages.
General damages assess your physical and any psychological injuries. Special damages assess the financial losses you have suffered. Because settlements take these differing factors into account, the “average leg injury compensation amount” might not be that useful to you.
To help estimate the value of your injuries (your pain and suffering), parties to a claim may consult guidelines from the Judicial College (JCG). This publication includes suggested award brackets for different types of leg injuries based on how severe they are. Parties may also take your medical records into account.
The figures in this table are presented only as a guideline. Aside from the first entry, figures are taken from the JCG.
| Injury | Severity | Damages |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple injuries to the leg | Severe or serious | Up to £500,000+ inclusive of special damages. |
| Leg injury | Amputation - loss of both legs - A (i) | £293,850 to £344,150 |
| Amputation - below the knee on both legs - A (ii) | £245,900 to £329,620 | |
| Amputation - above the knee, one leg - A (iii) | £127,930 to £167,760 | |
| Severe - B (i) | £117,460 to £165,860 | |
| Less serious - C (i) | £21,920 to £33,880 | |
| Knee injury | Severe - A (i) | £85,100 to £117,410 |
| Moderate - (B) (ii) | Up to £16,770 | |
| Achilles tendon | Most serious - A | In the region of £46,900 |
| Moderate - C | £15,370 to £25,710 |
Please remember that compensation awarded for your leg injury claim may differ.
Factors That Can Affect Your Payout
A variety of factors affect how much is awarded in leg injury compensation claims. Factors could include:
- How complex the leg injuries are and how long your recovery takes.
- Whether the injury has impacted your ability to work.
- How the injury has impacted your family life.
- Whether you (or the person you are claiming on behalf of) were partially at fault for the accident.
One of the solicitors from our panel could review your case and provide you with an assessment of how much you could claim. Call now to see if you are eligible to be connected.
Special Damage – What They Mean For You
As outlined above, you may also be awarded what are called special damages. These take account of financial losses related to your leg injury. You could be compensated for:
-
- Medical expenses: these may include the cost of treatment for your injuries, medication, and physiotherapy.
- Travel expenses: this could include the cost of attending medical appointments.
- Support and care expenses: this may include the cost of care in the home or domestic support.
- Loss of earnings and income: you may have taken time off work during your recovery. This could cause you to lose income and workplace entitlements such as pension contributions.
Special damages are not automatically awarded. You must supply evidence, such as payslips showing lost income or invoices for medical care, for such losses to be taken into consideration.
You can learn more about how much your leg injury claim could be awarded by contacting our team.
Common Causes Of Leg Injuries That Lead To Claims
Leg injuries could be caused by a wide variety of different circumstances. Below we look at potentially common causes of a leg injury.
Accidents At Work
Your employer owes you a duty of care as a worker or employee. This duty of care is outlined in legislation such as the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Employers must take reasonable steps to ensure workers safety. If they fail to do so, an employee could suffer a leg injury.
A factory accident could be caused by entanglement in machinery. If the employer has failed to ensure that proper guards over moving parts are in place, loose clothing or limbs may get caught. This could cause severe injuries, such as the loss of a limb.
Road Traffic Accidents
Every road user owes a duty of care to each other. Under this duty, they must use the roads responsibly and safely and thus avoid causing harm. They must also adhere to the Highway Code and the Road Traffic Act 1988.
A driver may have failed to stop at a red light, colliding head on with your vehicle. The impact of the resulting crash could force your knee into the steering wheel, causing severe knee injuries.
Accidents In A Public Place
The occupier of a public place, such as a shopping centre or train station, has a duty of care to those visiting the space. In accordance with the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 they must ensure it is reasonably safe for people to do so.
The failure to maintain a balcony in a shopping centre could cause someone who leans against it to fall and land on their lower back and legs. This could cause severe leg paralysis.
Can I Claim For Sports Injuries?
Claims for sporting injuries may be harder to make than other injury claims. This is because you may have reasonably assumed a degree of risk by participating in a sporting activity, such as playing rugby or rock climbing.
However, the party organising or providing the activity or facilities has a duty to reduce avoidable or unnecessary risks. You may be able to claim for sports injuries where you could show that the injury was caused by negligence. Examples may include:
Where you were provided with faulty equipment.
Where the accident was caused by poor supervision or instruction.
Whether you suffered a leg injury in an accident at work, on the road, in a public place or whilst participating in a sporting activity, you could be eligible to claim compensation.
Please contact our team to find out how one of our panel of personal injury solicitors could help you.
Different Types Of Leg Injuries You Can Claim For
Leg injuries could range from cuts and bruises to mild soft tissue injuries up to severe leg injuries and even amputations.
Common types of leg injury may include:
- Lacerations, cuts and other wounds – these may vary in degree of depth and severity.
- Strains and sprains – these could include damage to the tendons, ligaments or muscles caused by stretching and tearing. These could include damage to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) or Achilles tendon.
- Broken legs – there are many different types of bone fractures and breaks which may affect the leg(s). These may affect the thigh bone or the shin. Potential types of fracture could include a hairline, compound, comminuted or stress fractures.
- Dislocations – these could occur at the hip or knee.
- Nerve damage – damage to the nerve could result in loss of sensation, movement and may leave claimants with lasting pain.
These are just some examples of the different ways in which claimants could suffer a leg injury. Please contact our team for more information on how to claim leg injury compensation.
How To Start A Leg Injury Claim
If you are eligible to claim, there are steps you can take and aspects of the claims process you need to know. In the following sections, we look at what you need to know about making a leg injury claim.
The Evidence You’ll Need
One of the most important steps you can take when claiming compensation is gathering evidence to support your claim. This evidence must show who caused your injury, how you were harmed and how serious this injury was.
Types of evidence which could help to prove your leg injury claim may include:
- Your medical records, including records of what treatment you have had or will need. Your records should also show what degree of recovery you are expected to make.
- Accident reports, such as a copy of logs from an accident report book at work or in a public place. Car accidents and other road traffic accidents should be reported to the police. A copy of the police report may be submitted.
- Contact details for anyone who witnessed the accident take place.
- Photographs of the site of the accident and (where visible) of your leg injury.
- CCTV or other video footage of an accident taking place.
How Long You Have To Start Your Claim
The Limitation Act 1980 places a three year time limit on making a leg injury compensation claim. The period may start on the date on which you were injured or, if later, the date your injury was diagnosed.
Child accident claims are not subject to this time limit whilst the child is under the age of eighteen. The time limit will be applied when they reach this age. Prior to this, a litigation friend may claim on their behalf. A suitable adult could apply to become a litigation friend.
If the person who suffered leg injuries lacks sufficient mental capacity to make a claim, the time limit will also not be in effect. It would start to run if they recovered capacity, and it would be three years from that date. A litigation friend can start a claim before this time on their behalf.
Considering A No Win No Fee Agreement
If you are considering claiming compensation, one of our panel of personal injury lawyers could help you. Once they have assessed your case, if they think that you are entitled to claim, they could help you on a No Win No Fee basis.
To do so, they would use a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). By using a CFA, there would be:
- No upfront fees for the solicitors work on your leg injury claim.
- No fees for the solicitors work whilst the claim is under way.
- A success fee (restricted by law) is deducted from your damages if the claim is successful.
In the event your claim is not successful, the solicitor will not charge for their work.
How Long It Can Take To Receive Compensation
Without assessing the circumstances in which you were injured, we can not accurately say how long a claim will take. Every case is unique to that claimant, including their injury and the circumstances in which they were harmed. As such, there is no set time for a claim to be concluded.
Factors which could affect how long it can take to receive compensation include:
- How severe your leg injuries are and how long your treatment and recovery take.
- How long it takes to collect supporting evidence.
- Whether the other party (the defendant) accepts liability for the accident.
- Whether parties can agree upon a settlement.
One of our panel of personal injury solicitors could guide you through the claims process. What’s more, they could do so on a No Win No Fee basis.
Get in touch with our team to discover more about making a leg injury compensation claim.
How Our Panel Of Solicitors Can Help You Claim
One of our panel of personal injury solicitors could help you to make a leg injury claim. The solicitors and lawyers making up our panel are experienced in helping people to make a wide range of different types of claims.
They could:
- Explain and guide you through the compensation claims process.
- Help you to collect evidence.
- Organise for you to undergo an independent medical assessment of your injuries.
To find out how a No Win No Fee personal injury lawyer from our panel could help you, get in touch by:
- Calling 0800 408 7825.
- Filling out our contact form.
- Using our live chat.
More Information
Read more about personal injury claims in these guides.
- Read more about how to make a knee injury compensation claim in this guide.
- You can learn more about how lawyers could help with claims for car accidents in this guide.
- Check how to make a foot injury claim in this guide.
Further resources.
- Check how to request CCTV footage of your accident from a third party in this UK government guide.
- Find out more about getting treatment for a broken leg in this NHS guide.
- Learn more about first aid for broken bones and fractures in this resource from the St Johns Ambulance.
Thank you for reading our guide covering making a leg injury claim. We hope you now have a better understanding of how much compensation you can get for different types of injury. Please contact our team for further help and advice.
