Which Claims Fall Under Personal Injury?

By Danielle Coleman. Last Updated 22nd September 2022. It can be difficult to know where to begin with personal injury claims. You can look up No Win No Fee solicitors reviews and search phrases like “No Win No Fee lawyers near me”, but it can still be hard working out what you can claim for and who can help you. This is where our guide about personal injury can help.

This guide will provide useful answers to questions such as:

  • What falls under personal injury?
  • What does a personal injury claim cover?
  • How do personal injury claims work?
  • What are examples of personal injury?
  • How do No Win No Fee claims work?
  • What are the potential benefits of using No Win No Fee personal injury solicitors?

Our advisors offer free legal advice and are available 24/7 so, if you have any questions or queries about the claims process or want to know more about how accident at work claims are processed, for instance, you can call them. Our contact details are below.

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Which claims fall under personal injury?

Select a Section

  1. Am I Eligible To Make A Personal Injury Claim?
  2. Road Traffic Accidents
  3. Accidents In Public Places
  4. Workplace Accidents
  5. List Of Compensation Payouts
  6. Seek Compensation With The Help Of A No Win No Fee Personal Injury Solicitor
  7. Learn More About Personal Injury Compensation Claims

Am I Eligible To Make A Personal Injury Claim?

Making a successful claim revolves around the idea of negligence. Some third parties have a duty of care to people based on their legal obligations. There are three requirements needed in any given injury to potentially make a personal injury claim.

  • The third party needs to have a duty of care towards you.
  • You need to be able to prove that they have breached their duty of care.
  • You must have been injured specifically because of this breach.

It’s only if all three can be established that the personal injury claims process can begin. This is why personal injury solicitors will often request information about your injury and how it occurred before taking your case.

Other important things to consider when looking into making accident claims include:

  • The personal injury claims time limit. Generally, you would only be able to make a claim either up to three years since the injury or three years since you discovered the injury was due to someone else’s negligence. This is clarified in detail in the Limitation Act 1980.
  • Making a claim for someone under the age of eighteen or who doesn’t have the mental capacity could involve someone needing to become their litigation friend to claim on their behalf.
  • However, when a child reaches eighteen, they’d have three years from their eighteenth birthday to claim on their own behalf (if nobody else has already done so). What’s more, someone who regains the mental capacity to claim would have three years to claim from the date of their recovery (again, if nobody else has already done so).

If you’re not looking to make a personal injury claim, you can seek compensation after an accident or injury through other methods, such as:

  • Writing a complaint letter to the third party.
  • Attempting mediation as a way to negotiate a settlement.

However, to ensure you get the right compensation for your claim, we advise seeking legal advice.

If you want to know more about the eligibility criteria for making a No Win No Fee compensation claim, please read on.

Road Traffic Accidents

Every road user has a duty of care to others. This is illustrated in the Road Traffic Act 1991 and The Highway Code. These rules have helped define safe conduct on the road. This, essentially, entail driving with standard care and skill. As such, if you feel you’ve been injured due to someone’s negligent driving, you may be able to make a successful claim. Examples of negligence on the road include:

  • Another driver speeding through a red light, causing them to collide with your vehicle. This could result in you seeking fracture compensation.
  • Suffering a ligament and tendon injury due to a motorcyclist pulling into a roundabout at the wrong time.
  • Being the victim of a road traffic accident (RTA) due to a lorry not indicating and, as such, crashing into your car, causing you injury.
  • A drunk driver driving over the speed limit, resulting in a multi-car pile-up and numerous injuries.

The above example could cause victims to search for No Win No Fee solicitors near them, but many solicitors can now work for you from anywhere in the country.

If your injuries are worth less than £5,000, you would need to claim through another method. This is clarified in The Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021. However, before you do, please give us a call. Our advisors assess the value of your injuries over the phone. As such, they could reveal that your injuries are worth more than you previously thought and are similar to those found in other personal injury claims.

Accidents In Public Places

People who control public places are often referred to as occupiers. They have a duty of care to members of the public who use their facilities to take reasonable steps to make sure the environment is secure and safe enough to be used. This is outlined in greater detail in the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. In this regard, negligence would come from an occupier not fulfilling the necessary duties to take reasonable steps to ensure visitors’ safety. Examples of negligence include:

  • A handrail falling from the stairway due to it being damaged and the occupier not fixing it, causing you to fall downstairs.
  • Tripping over exposed wiring that the occupier has placed.
  • Seeking personal injury compensation due to slipping on a wet floor because no warning signs were present, even though the occupier was aware of it.
  • An automatic door malfunctioning because it wasn’t risk-assessed, causing it to slam into your arm.

The above could lead to you looking up No Win No Fee lawyers and personal injury claims.

Workplace Accidents

Your employer also has a duty of care to all employees. They need to make sure reasonable precautions are taken to ensure an accident at work doesn’t occur. This involves making sure, within reason, that the workplace is safe and secure enough to be used for all of its required functions. Accidents at work happen for various reasons but, if one has caused your injury and you feel your employer’s negligence was the reason for it, you may be able to claim. Your employer’s duty of care is highlighted in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

Examples of employer negligence include:

  • Manual handling injuries if, for instance, insufficient training has led to you being injured after attempting to move or lift an object.
  • Faulty machinery that wasn’t risk-assessed leading to part of it flying off and striking you. This could lead to you wanting to make an accident at work claim.
  • Suffering from an industrial disease or permanent ailment, such as hearing loss resulting from working on construction sites without your employer providing the necessary protection. This could lead to you looking into personal injury claims.
  • Faulty work equipment your employer knowingly provides you with, such as a ladder, could cause you to fall off it and seriously injure yourself. As such, you may look up “No Win No Fee lawyers in the UK.”

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides advice regarding avoiding accidents at work. To learn more, visit their website.

List Of Compensation Payouts

While there are several types of personal injury claims, compensation is generally assessed and calculated the same way. Compensation is determined by examining the impact of an injury: both physically/psychologically or financially.

The first head of claim is general damages. This looks directly at how your injury may have affected you physically and mentally. An amount is then assessed to compensate you for your pain and suffering.

The information featured below is a list of compensation payouts for the UK taken from the 2022 Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This is the source commonly used by litigators to value personal injury claim payouts. These should not be taken as guaranteed, as every claim is assessed individually.

Area Of InjurySeverityRange of CompensationDescription
Pelvis and Hips(a) Severe (iii)£39,170 to £52,500Injuries in this bracket include a fracture of the acetabulum leading to degenerative changes. 
Foot (e) Serious£24,990 to £39,200

This bracket includes injuries that lead to continuous pain caused by traumatic arthritis or the risk of future arthritis. 
Arm(c) Less Severe Injury£19,200 to £39,170Injuries that cause significant disabilities where a large portion of time will be required to recover from them. 
Fingers(f) Severe Fractures to FingersUp to £36,740Severe fractures to fingers, resulting in partial amputations and deformity. 
Knee(b) Moderate (i)£14,840 to £26,190

Injuries include dislocation, torn meniscus or cartilage resulting in minor instability and weakness or other mild disabilities of this nature. 
Leg(c) Less Serious (ii)£9,110 to £14,080 Injuries in this bracket include a simple femur fracture with no further complications.
Neck(b) Moderate (iii)£7,890 to
£13,740
Injuries like this may accelerate or exacerbate a pre-existing condition, usually for less than a five-year period. 
Shoulder(c) Moderate£7,890 to £12,770


Injuries in this bracket include a frozen shoulder causing limited movement and discomfort for around two years. 
Toe(e) ModerateUp to £9,600This bracket includes relatively simple fractures or the exacerbation of a pre-existing degenerative condition. 
Wrist(e) Uncomplicated Colles' FractureIn the region of £7,430A simple, uncomplicated Colles' fracture. 

What Else Can You Claim For That This List Of Compensation Payouts Doesn’t Show?

The list of compensation payouts for the UK above only addresses general damages. However, in addition to general damages, some personal injury claim payouts can also include special damages.

Special damages can help claimants recover costs incurred as a direct result of injuries sustained in the accident. However, you can only recover costs if you can supply evidence, such as payslips or receipts. If you are claiming for property that was damaged in the accident, such as broken sunglasses for example, you will need to present a receipt for a replacement, or an invoice if the item can be repaired.

Further examples of what could be claimed under special damages include:

  • Loss of earnings
  • Lost future earnings
  • Medical expenses
  • Travel expenses
  • Home adaptions
  • Vehicle adaptions
  • Damaged property repairs
  • Damaged property replacements
  • Carer costs

This list is not exhaustive. You can talk to our personal injury claims team if there are other losses you have experienced due to your injury and they can offer further advice on what costs you could recover along with what evidence you could present.

Seek Compensation With The Help Of A No Win No Fee Personal Injury Solicitor

A No Win No Fee solicitor can answer queries such as “How many stages of a personal injury claim in the UK are there?” Their legal expertise, however, isn’t the only potential benefit. For example:

  • They will not charge you legal fees either upfront or during the claims process.
  • Instead, they will take a legally capped part of your compensation. This will be only taken after the compensation comes through and only if your claim is successful.
  • Your personal injury solicitor will not request legal fees should your claim be unsuccessful.

They can do this by signing a Conditional Fee Agreement with you, often referred to as a No Win No Fee agreement. Our panel of No Win No Fee solicitors could lead to you receiving thousands of pounds in compensation.

If you want to see if you could claim or have any questions about personal injury claims, please get in touch using the details below.

  • Call us at a time that works for you.
  • Write to us using our Live Chat function on the right-hand side of your screen.
  • Contact us via our website.

Learn More About Personal Injury Compensation Claims

If you’d like more helpful advice and information, please see below.

The HSE also provides more information about falls from a height in the workplace.

The Department for Transport provides road traffic accident statistics, including reported road casualties in Great Britain.

Broken a bone? If so, and you need more information about how to treat it, visit the NHS website.

Why not check out more of our personal injury claims guides below:

Thank you for reading our guide to personal injury claims.

Written by DUR

Published by VIC