If a third party was liable for minor injuries you sustained in an accident, you might have good grounds to claim compensation. However, all personal injury claims must meet specific criteria. In this guide to making a minor injury claim, we explain this and look at how it applies in various real-life situations.
We start off the guide with a look at how minor injury compensation could be awarded. Then we explore real-life situations where a third party could be liable for your minor injuries. Additionally, we’ll look at whether you can claim for multiple minor injuries and provide information on the claims process.
To bring this guide to a conclusion, we look at how a solicitor can support your claim for a minor injury on a No Win No Fee basis.
Our advisors are available 24/7 to answer any questions you might have about claiming compensation for minor injuries. To discuss how much compensation you could receive, what the personal injury claims process entails or how a solicitor could help you:
- Call 0800 408 7826
- Fill out our contact us form and a team member will get back to you.
- Ask about compensation claims in our live chat.
Choose A Section
- Compensation Calculator For A Minor Injury Claim
- What Is A Minor Injury Claim?
- Can I Claim For Multiple Minor Injuries?
- What Should I Do If I Want To Make A Minor Personal Injury Claim?
- What Is The Time Limit For Minor Injury Claims?
- Claim For A Personal Injury On A No Win No Fee Basis
- Read More About Making Personal Injury Claims
Compensation Calculator For A Minor Injury Claim
When a minor injury claim is settled successfully, the compensation award may consist of two parts. These parts are known as ‘heads of loss’.
The first head of loss is called general damages. It is under this head that you are awarded compensation for the physical pain and mental suffering brought on by the incident. Those responsible for valuing this part of a personal injury claim may refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) along with your medical reports. The JCG provides guideline compensation amounts for various types of injuries.
In our table below, we’ve provided a few figures from the JCG. We’ve also provided a figure in the top row to show you how compensation could be awarded for multiple minor injuries and related costs and expenses. This figure was not taken from the JCG.
| Injury Type | Severity | Notes | Guideline Compensation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple Minor Injuries Plus Related Expenses | Modest | Settlements could compensate for various minor injuries and any related expenses, such as lost wages and prescriptions. | Up to £50,000+ |
| Neck | Moderate (i) | Severe immediate symptoms that may necessitate a spinal fusion from fractures and dislocations. | £30,500 to £46,970 |
| Less Serious Leg Injuries | Fractures and Serious Soft Tissue Injuries | Reasonable recovery from fractures, but may have a metal implant, limp or sensory loss. Also included are serious soft tissue injuries causing significant cosmetic deficit, functioning restrictions or nerve damage. | £21,920 to £33,880 |
| Ankle | Moderate | Less serious disabilities, such as difficulty walking on uneven ground from fractures and ligamentous tears. | £16,770 to £32,450 |
| Foot | Moderate | Continuing symptoms from displaced metatarsal fractures. | £16,770 to £30,500 |
| Arm | Simple | Simple forearm fractures. | £8,060 to £23,430 |
| Shoulder | Moderate | Frozen shoulder and movement limitations lasting about 2 years, or non-permanent soft tissue injuries with more than minimal symptoms lasting beyond this. | £9,630 to £15,580 |
| Head | Minor | These injuries involve minimal, if any, brain damage, with awards considering initial severity and recovery time. | £2,690 to £15,580 |
| Back | Minor (i) | Recovery without surgery occurs within 2-5 years. | £9,630 to £15,260 |
| Finger Fracture | Index | Some impairment to grip and pain upon heavy use following a fracture that mended quickly. | £11,120 to £14,930 |
Can I Claim If I’ve Been Unable To Work Due To An Injury?
If you’ve been out of work due to a minor injury, if your claim is successful, you can recover your loss of earnings. This would be done under a second head of loss known as ‘special damages’. It is under this second head that you are awarded compensation for the financial impact of your minor injuries.
In addition to loss of earnings, you could be reimbursed for:
- Medical expenses, such as physiotherapy or prescriptions.
- Transport costs.
- Any home help required while you recover, such as with childcare or cleaning.
- Rental costs of mobility equipment, such as a wheelchair or crutches.
To recover these costs, you should submit documentation as part of the personal injury claims process. This can include your wage slips, receipts, invoices or bank statements.
If you have any questions about how compensation could be awarded in a minor injury claim, please call a member of our advisory team. They can also advise on the estimate you received from our compensation calculator.
What Is A Minor Injury Claim?
There are various situations in which you could sustain minor injuries. However, in order to have a valid claim, you must prove that negligence occurred. To show this, you must prove that:
- A liable party owed you a duty of care. This is a legal obligation imposed on an individual or organisation that requires them to take proper care to avoid causing some type of foreseeable harm.
- The liable party breached their duty of care.
- You sustained injuries due to this breach.
Should you meet all three of these criteria, you might have a valid minor injury claim. In the following sections, we look at areas in which a breach of a duty of care could lead to you suffering minor injuries.
Accidents in a Public Place
While you are in a public place, such as a park, cinema, restaurant or shop, the individual or organisation in control of that space (known as the ‘occupier’) must ensure the reasonable safety of those visiting or using the space for its intended purpose. This is the duty owed to the public as set out in the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957.
For example, if you trip over loose carpet and sustain a broken forearm because a cinema failed to repair or make safe the flooring, you could make a public liability claim.
Accidents at Work
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA) sets out the duty of care that all employers owe to their employees. Under this legislation, your employer must ensure that they take reasonable steps to protect your health and safety while carrying out work-related duties.
For example, if you are not taught correct manual handling techniques, you could suffer a back injury. As part of meeting their health and safety obligations, your employer must provide any training required to carry out your job role safely. If your employer fails to comply with all relevant health and safety legislation and this results in injury, you could launch an accident at work claim.
Road Traffic Accidents
All road users must take care to navigate in a safe manner that avoids causing accidents. This is the duty road users owe to one another. As part of this, anyone on the roads needs to comply with the rules and regulations set out for them in the Highway Code and Road Traffic Act 1988.
For example, if a speeding motorist rear-ends you and this causes a shoulder injury, you could start a road traffic accident claim.
In some cases, your minor injury claim will need to be made through the Whiplash Reform Programme. This applies to road traffic accidents that happened in England or Wales. You must have been the driver or passenger in a vehicle and 18 or older with injuries valued at £5,000 or less to claim under these reforms. Furthermore, if you sustained whiplash, your injury will be valued in accordance with the fixed tariff set out in the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021. Other injuries will be valued based on the compensation guidelines published by the Judicial College.
For a free minor injury claim eligibility check, call a member of the team.
Can I Claim For Multiple Minor Injuries?
As part of your minor injury claim, you may wonder if you can claim for multiple injuries. If the same incident caused all of your injuries and you meet the personal injury claims eligibility critiera, you can.
Please note that if your injuries occurred in a car accident, your claim may be made through the Whiplash Reforms (discussed above).
One of our advisors can answer any questions you have about claiming for multiple injuries.
What Should I Do If I Want To Make A Minor Personal Injury Claim?
Following an injury, you should seek medical attention. Firstly, the injury may be more severe than you initially thought. For example, you could have a broken bone and not a sprain. Furthermore, the injury and treatment will be noted on your medical records. You can request these to submit when making a minor injury claim. Additionally, as part of the personal injury claims process, you will need to submit further evidence that proves liability for the injuries you sustained. This can include:
- Video footage, such as from CCTV, dashcams or mobile phones.
- Accident reports.
- Witness contact information in case statements are required later on.
- Police reports.
- Photographs of the accident scene or of any visible injuries.
If you are thinking about making a compensation claim, you may also like to contact a personal injury solicitor for legal advice. An experienced solicitor will be able to advise you on evidence and help guide you through the personal injury claims process. Call our advisors to find out more about being connected to one of our panel solicitors.
What Is The Time Limit For Minor Injury Claims?
As with all personal injury claims, the Limitation Act 1990 sets a three year time limit in which to start your minor injury claim. However, it does also allow for exceptions to this limiation period in certain circumstances, such as for minors or those without the mental capacity to bring forward their own personal injury claim. For further information and to find out if you are still within the time limit to claim compensation, speak to one of our advisors.
Claim For A Personal Injury On A No Win No Fee Basis
If you would like to launch a minor injury claim, get in touch with one of our advisors. They can assess your eligibility, and if you satisfy the criteria, they can connect you with one of the personal injury solicitors from our panel. Our panel have many collective years of handling minor injury claims.
They also provide their services on a No Win No Fee basis under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). If you would like a solicitor that:
- Doesn’t charge upfront for their work on your minor personal injury claim.
- Won’t take any ongoing fees.
- Also won’t ask for payment for their services if your claim fails.
- Only takes a small success fee from the compensation that has been awarded to you if your claim wins. This is taken as a percentage that is subject to a legislative cap. Thus ensuring that you get to keep the majority of your minor injury compensation.
Then speak to one of our advisors by:
- Calling 0800 408 7826
- Filling out our contact us.
- Asking about compensation claims in our live chat.
Read More About Making Personal Injury Claims
Here are a few more guides from our site:
- Guidance on how compensation for a broken tooth could be awarded.
- Information about using a broken nose compensation calculator.
- Advice on how to calculate compensation for a hairline fracture.
And a few external links that could be useful:
- Advice on first aid from the NHS.
- Learn about preventing accidents and injuries from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
- Government guidance on Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) if you are off work recovering from minor injuries.
If you have any more questions about starting a minor injury claim, don’t hesitate to get in touch.