A Guide To Making Eye Injury Claims

Are you looking for advice on pursuing an eye injury claim? Have you been injured at work, in a public place, or on the roads? If someone else’s negligence caused your injury, you could be eligible to make a personal injury claim. To clarify, the definition of negligence is a breach of duty of care.

This guide will provide useful information on eye injuries and explain how you can pursue compensation. Also, you can find out the potential payout you could receive and how a No Win No Fee solicitor could benefit you.

Call our professional team of advisors for free legal advice about your claim for an eye injury. They are available 24/7, so you can contact them at a time convenient for you.

To get in touch, you can:

Click the banner above.
Contact us online.
Alternatively, use our live chat feature at the bottom of the page.

Eye injury claim guide

Choose A Section

Guidance On Making An Eye Injury Claim
Calculating Compensation For An Injured Eye Claim
What Is An Eye Injury?
What Evidence Could Lead To You Winning An Eye Injury Claim?
Reasons To Appoint A No Win No Fee Solicitor
More Information On Making An Eye Injury Claim

Guidance On Making An Eye Injury Claim

An eye injury could greatly impact your life; you may suffer physically in the form of pain and permanent damage to your eyesight. In addition to this, you might also find it difficult to cope mentally with the injuries you’ve sustained. If negligence caused your injury, you may be eligible to claim for your suffering.

A successful eye injury claim will prove the three criteria listed below:

Firstly, a third party owed you a duty of care
Secondly, they breached this duty of care
Finally, the breach caused your eye to be injured

The personal injury claims time limit is laid out by the Limitation Act 1980. It states that when starting a claim, you have three years from the date of the accident or the date you connected your eye injury with negligence. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule:

People under the age of eighteen – the time limit begins on your eighteenth birthday. You can choose to appoint a litigation friend as your representation while you’re underage, and they can claim for you at any point until you turn 18.
People who lack the mental capacity to make a claim – the time limit is suspended while the injured person cannot claim themselves, and a litigation friend can represent them. The three-year limit starts again in the event that they recover.

Get in touch with our team of advisors for more information on making an eye injury claim.

Calculating Compensation For An Injured Eye Claim

You may be wondering what your compensation for an eye injury could consist of. The two potential heads of a personal injury claim are general damages and special damages.

General damages are awarded to compensate for pain and suffering caused by physical and psychological injuries. This guide has created the table below, using figures from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), produced in April 2022. Legal professionals use this text to calculate settlement amounts; the figures are based on previous successful claims.

Injury	Details	Compensation Brackets
Total Blindness and Deafness	Most devastating injuries affecting sight and hearing.	In the region of £403,990
Total Blindness	No vision remaining in either eye.	In the region of £268,720
Vision Loss in One Eye and Reduced Vision in the Second Eye (i)	Serious risk of deterioration in the remaining eye.	£95,990 to £179,770
Eyesight Losss in One Eye and Reduced Vision in the Second Eye (ii)	There may be problems with the remaining eye such as double vision or impaired vision.	£63,950 to £105,990
Total Loss of One Eye	Amount awarded depends on age, psychological impacts and cosmetic effects.	£54,830 to £65,710
Complete Loss of Vision in One Eye (e)	Amount awarded takes some risk of sympathetic ophthalmia into account. There may be some scarring around the eye.	£49,270 to £54,830
Complete Loss of Eyesight in One Eye (f)	Serious but incomplete loss of vision in one eye. No significant risk of reduced vision in the second eye.	£23,680 to £39,340
Complete Loss of Vision in One Eye (g)	Permanent minor effects on vision in one or both eyes. There may be some double vision or sensitivity to bright light.	£9,110 to £20,980
Minor Eye Injuries	Injuries that cause pain and have some temporary effect on vision.	£3,950 to £8,730
Transient Eye Injuries	The injury will fully recover within a few weeks.	£2,200 to £3,950

However, please bear in mind the amount of compensation awarded for general damages can differ. You may not receive the amount specified above for your injuries.

Additionally, special damages compensate you for past and future financial costs caused by the injury. It is important to keep evidence of special damages in order to be fully reimbursed. Below are some examples of special damages and the evidence you could supply in support of them:

Travel to medical appointments – You could keep your bus tickets as proof.
Care – For example, childcare or medical care that is not provided for free on the NHS. Keep bank statements or invoices showing the payments made.
Loss of earnings – If you cannot work due to your injuries, you could use payslips and bank statements to prove the amount you would have earned.

If you require more information about your eye injury claim, don’t hesitate to contact our team of advisors.

What Is An Eye Injury?

Eye injuries can vary in severity; some are minor and can get better with no treatment. However, some are more extreme and can result in long-term or even permanent interference with your vision. The NHS provides helpful advice on what to do following an eye injury.

You might be asking, “which claims fall under personal injury?” Below are the different areas of personal injury that may be relevant in an eye injury claim.

Eye injury at work claims – In the workplace, your employer has a duty of care to take reasonably practical steps to ensure your health and safety. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 outlines the duties employers must adhere to, such as providing proper training and regular maintenance. For example, you could injure your eye in an accident at work whilst working in an office due to tripping over tangled wires in a walkway. This could be caused by employer negligence if the hazard had been reported, but the employer did not remove the hazard in a reasonable time.
Road traffic accidents – Road users have a duty of care to one another to navigate the roads safely and prevent harm. The central piece of legislation governing driving offences is the Road Traffic Act 1988. The Highway Code outlines the rules and guidelines that apply to road users. Road users could breach their duty of care by driving under the influence, speeding or ignoring red lights.
Accident in a public place – Those responsible for a public place must adhere to the duty of care laid out by the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. Some of their duties include assessing hazards, carrying out regular maintenance to reduce and remove hazards where possible and providing signage to indicate where this cannot be done.

If you have been injured due to negligence, contact us for an assessment of whether you could make an eye injury claim.

What Evidence Could Lead To You Winning An Eye Injury Claim?

For a successful personal injury claim, you must prove that your injury resulted from the negligence of someone who owed you a duty of care.

Firstly, you need to seek medical attention for your injury. Following this, you should gather evidence as soon as possible. Different types of evidence you could gather are:

Photographic evidence – Take pictures of the scene, the hazard that caused the accident and your injuries.
Video footage – This could be dashcam or CCTV footage of the accident.
Work accident report book – This should be completed after an accident at work without delay. Workplaces that employ over ten staff members should have one of these.
Medical records – These can show the extent of the injuries and any treatment required.
Witness contact information – This can provide crucial evidence that corroborates your account of events. Although, it is important to note that you cannot record a witness statement. They must be obtained by a third party, such as a solicitor.

Lastly, it is advisable to seek legal advice. Using a solicitor to represent you is not required, but it is recommended to give you the best chance of a successful eye injury claim. If you would like advice, please contact us to enquire further.

Reasons To Appoint A No Win No Fee Solicitor

Appointing a legal professional can benefit your eye injury claim, as they can give you advice, help compile evidence and assist in navigating complex legal proceedings. Specifically, a No Win No Fee solicitor can do this whilst eliminating the financial concerns of paying large upfront and ongoing fees for your solicitor’s services before you know whether you will be awarded compensation.

A No Win No Fee agreement can also be known as a Conditional Fee Agreement. It means you do not have to pay for your solicitor’s services unless your claim is successful. In this case, a small percentage, called a ‘success fee’, is deducted from the awarded compensation and paid to your solicitor. The law caps this, so don’t be concerned about getting overcharged.

Get Advice On Making An Eye Injury Claim

Please don’t hesitate to contact our helpful team of advisors. They will assess the eligibility of your eye injury claim and could connect you with one of the No Win No Fee solicitors from our panel. However, there is no obligation to further your claim following their advice.

Click the banner above.
Contact us online.
Alternatively, use our live chat feature at the bottom of the page.

More Information On Making An Eye Injury Claim

Further useful pages relating to your personal injury claim for an eye injury:

External links to find out more:

We hope this guide has informed you on how to pursue an eye injury claim.

Writer Jess Oliphant

Publisher Fern Stewart