No Win, No FeeAny injuries to the digits on your hands can be painful and make it difficult to carry out simple daily activities. If the thumb is injured, this difficulty can be multiplied as your grip and ability to function can be greatly impaired. This is even more true if the thumb on your dominant hand is affected. If you’ve been injured in an accident because of someone else’s negligence, you may be entitled to start a thumb injury compensation claim.
We’re here to support you if you do wish to claim. By calling our team, you’ll be offered free legal advice after your case has been reviewed by a specialist. They’ll answer your questions and could partner you with a personal injury lawyer from our panel. If they agree to take on your claim, it’ll be processed on a No Win, No Fee basis so you won’t need to pay legal fees if compensation is not awarded.
Are you ready to begin a thumb injury claim today? If so, call us on 0800 652 1345. If you’d rather learn more about how to claim thumb injury compensation first, please continue reading.
Types of thumb injuries you could claim compensation for
Some of the most common thumb injuries that might lead to personal injury claims include:
- A thumb fracture.
- A dislocated thumb.
- Lacerations or less minor cuts.
- Tendon injuries.
- Crush injuries.
- Amputated thumbs (complete or partial).
- Thumb Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI).
Don’t worry if your thumb injury is not included in our list as we could still help you to claim.
Can I claim compensation for a thumb injury?
If you ask a personal injury solicitor on our panel to lodge a compensation claim for a thumb injury, they’ll first assess what has happened to you before proceeding further. During this assessment, they’ll be looking to see whether:
- Legally, a duty of care was owed to you by the defendant; and
- An accident occurred because the defendant was negligent; and
- You injured your thumb as a direct result of the accident.
Duty of care sounds like a complex term but, in reality, it’s quite easy to establish in many situations. For example, your employer has a duty to keep you safe at work. Similarly, businesses will have a duty to keep their premises as safe as possible for all who enter them. We’ll check this part of the criteria for you when you call for a free assessment.
Common accidents that cause thumb injuries
Let’s now look at some examples of scenarios that could mean you’re entitled to compensation for a thumb injury:
Work accidents
You could be eligible to claim compensation if you injured your thumb in an accident at work. For example, if you lost part of your thumb because the safety rail on a cutting machine was missing or if the emergency stop button failed due to poor maintenance. You could also claim for thumb injuries caused by a lack of proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
Thumb RSI
Some thumb injuries are not sustained in accidents. Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) can occur if your thumb is involved in repetitive actions over a prolonged period of time. Work-related thumb injury claims can include RSI injuries known as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) and Trigger finger or thumb.
Symptoms of thumb RSI can include tingling, numbness, pain and movement difficulty. They can be caused by damage to the tendons and nerves in and around the thumb joint.
Employees using heavy vibrating machinery, keyboards, hand tools or those carrying out complex repetitive tasks are particularly at risk of developing an RSI in the thumb and so employers should take precautions to reduce the risk. As such, you could claim thumb injury compensation if your employer failed to:
- Train you on how to do your role safely.
- Allow you to take regular rest breaks.
- Investigate the use of low-vibration tools.
- Provide anti-vibration gloves and other forms of PPE.
If you believe your employer is to blame for your thumb injury, please get in touch. We could help you to claim the compensation you’ll need to improve your quality of life and to get back as close to normal as possible.
Falls
Thumb injuries can be quite common if you put your hands out to protect yourself when falling. If you fell because of a broken kerbstone, a wet floor, trailed cables or any other form of a trip hazard, you might be entitled to seek damages.
Road traffic accidents
Collisions involving motor vehicles can lead to thumb injury claims. It’s quite common for soft tissue damage to occur in the thumb if it’s trapped or crushed. Similarly, cuts and lacerations are possible because of sharp edges and glass debris. If the RTA was caused by another road user’s negligence (careless driving, speeding, drink driving etc), you could have the grounds to start a claim.
Public place accidents
If you’re legally entitled to be in a public place, the owner or operator must try to keep it as safe as possible. This can include train stations, libraries, gyms and shopping centres. Claims for thumb injuries might be possible if you cut your thumb on damaged furniture or if your thumb was trapped in faulty or poorly maintained equipment.
Again, if we haven’t mentioned the sort of accident in which you injured your thumb, please don’t worry. Simply call us on 0800 652 1345, explain what happened and we’ll look at your options with you for free.
How much compensation for a thumb injury can I claim?
Each thumb injury compensation claim is unique as compensation levels are largely determined by the severity of the injury. As such, before a compensation estimate can be provided, you’ll usually need an independent medical assessment to determine your prognosis.
This is something your solicitor shall try to arrange locally. Once they’ve received your report, they’ll work out how much compensation for a thumb injury you might be entitled to. If your claim is won, you could be paid damages to cover:
- Physical pain, suffering and discomfort.
- Loss of enjoyment of your normal activities linked to your injured thumb.
- Distress, depression and other forms of psychiatric injury.
- Medical expenses.
- Lost income for short-term injuries and future losses for more serious thumb injuries.
- Care costs if you needed support while your thumb was injured.
- Travel costs.
- Property replacement costs (if items were damaged during your accident).
- Home appliances or tools that will make it easier for you to cope if you’re left with a permanent thumb injury (to help with reduced grip for example).
Your solicitor will review everything in fine detail before lodging your thumb injury claim.
Providing proof for thumb injury compensation claims
Generally, thumb injury claims won’t be handled by the defendant themselves. Instead, they’ll pass everything on to their insurance provider who’ll probably deny liability for your accident and injury from the outset. As such, your solicitor must provide clear proof as to why you should be paid compensation. This could include:
- Photographic proof. This could include pictures of any visible injuries or deformities of your thumb. Additionally, you could supply photographs of the accident scene to prove how your thumb was injured.
- Accident report forms. To help prove the date, time and location of your accident, a copy of the accident report form could be obtained. As such, it’s always a good idea to inform someone about the incident as soon as you can.
- Medical notes. If your thumb injury was diagnosed and treated by a doctor, your medical records and X-rays could be requested to prove the severity of the injury.
- Witness statements. In some cases, witnesses to your accident might be contacted by your solicitor to provide a written statement. This can help to verify how the accident occurred.
- Video footage. Another way of proving how your thumb was injured is to provide mobile phone, dashcam or CCTV footage. If this is owned by someone else, you should ask to get a copy without delay as it may be quickly deleted.
You may also be able to claim back any linked expenses because of your injured thumb so you should retain any relevant receipts, wage slips or bank statements to support your claim. If you have any further proof available, please let us know if you call for a free consultation.
No Win, No Fee thumb injury claims
We believe that you’ll have a better chance of winning a thumb injury compensation claim if you take on specialist legal representation. To reduce the financial risks of doing so, the personal injury solicitors on our panel work on a No Win, No Fee basis for any claim they take on.
This will also make the claim less stressful as you’ll know that you:
- Won’t pay legal fees upfront.
- Won’t have to pay anything if the thumb injury claim is lost.
- Will only pay any legal fees whatsoever if compensation is awarded.
If you and a solicitor from our panel agree to work together, they will:
- Manage the whole process for you.
- Collect the information needed to support your claim.
- Fight your corner and try to counter any objections raised by the defendant.
- Ensure you are regularly updated about how your thumb injury claim is progressing.
- Review any settlement offers with you to try and confirm that they are fair before they are accepted.
If you are awarded compensation for a thumb injury, a deduction will be made from your payout to cover your solicitor’s time and expenses. This is called a success fee and it is legally capped at 25 per cent of any damages paid.
To see if you could make a No Win, No Fee thumb injury claim, please call today.
Thumb injury claim time limits
In the UK, personal injury claims have a 3-year time limit. For most claims, the time limit will start from the date you injured your thumb. However, if your injury was obvious right away e.g. in a thumb RSI claim, the time limit will start on the date the RSI was diagnosed.
It can be useful to get a quick start on your claim. Not only will this mean you may receive your compensation payout sooner (if the claim is won), but it could also mean you’ll receive interim payments to help with any immediate costs before your claim is settled.
Importantly, the 3-year limitation period does not begin until the claimant’s 18th birthday. So, if your child has injured their thumb, you can begin the child injury claims process at any point before then.
Start a thumb injury compensation claim today
If you believe you should be compensated for a thumb injury, feel free to ask one of our specialists for free legal advice. If you call 0800 652 1345 today, we’ll conduct a no-obligation consultation to review your case with you.
If there is a fair chance that you’ll receive compensation for your thumb injury, one of our personal injury lawyers may agree to take on your claim. It that’s the case, you’ll only pay legal fees if you’re compensated because of their No Win No Fee service.
Please use live chat to connect with us if you have any further questions on thumb injury claims, or arrange a free consultation here.
