Foot Injury at Work – A Guide to Claiming Compensation

If your foot is injured at work and the accident that caused your suffering was your employer’s responsibility, you may be entitled to claim compensation. As well as covering the pain caused by your foot injury, any compensation payout you receive could cover costs such as loss of earnings and medical expenses. In this guide, we explain how foot injury at work claims work and explain some of your rights following an accident at work.

If you need any help with a foot injury compensation claim, we’re ready to support you. Initially, we’ll assess your case for free and provide no-obligation legal advice. If your claim is feasible, you could be connected with one of our specialist solicitors. Then, if your foot injury claim proceeds, you’ll be represented on a No Win, No Fee basis.

To discuss your case with one of our specialists today, you can:

• Call 0800 0333 241 2519 to speak with a specialist.
• Connect with an online advisor via our live chat service.

Read on for more on how foot injury claims work or give us a call if you need any further information about the claims process.

Types of Foot Injuries at Work We Can Help With

While it’s feasible that you could claim compensation for any type of work-related foot injury, some of the most common dealt with by solicitors include:

• Broken foot at work.
• Broken toes.
• Dislocated toes.
• Partial or complete foot amputations.
• Amputated toes.
• Strains, sprains and severe bruising.
• Cuts and lacerations.
• Tendon injuries.

In some cases, foot injuries at work can lead to further complications later in life. For instance, if pins and plates are needed to secure bone fragments, you might be left with a gait or limp for the rest of your life. As such, any additional suffering must be factored into your foot injury claim before it is finalised.

Can I Make a Foot Injury at Work Compensation Claim?

When you start a personal injury claim against your employer, the first thing to establish is that they owed you a legal duty of care. In foot injury claims, this is usually straightforward enough because all employers must adhere to the rules of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.  Some of the practical steps they could take to reduce the risk of workplace foot injuries include:

• Regularly assessing the workplace for any hazards and removing them where possible.
• Providing protective footwear and other types of PPE where required.
• Providing adequate safety training for all staff.
• Ensuring any tools or equipment are maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s guidelines.
• Keeping the workplace organised and tidy to reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls.

Failure to take such steps might be deemed negligent if they cause you to suffer a foot injury. In such cases, you might entitled to claim foot injury compensation if you can prove that:

• Your employer owed you a legal duty of care.
• An act of negligence by your employer caused you to be involved in an accident at work.
• As a result of that accident, you’ve suffered a foot injury in the last three years.

Our team is specially trained to assess workplace foot injury claims so please call for your free initial consultation today.

What Types of Negligence Can Lead to a Foot Injury at Work Claim?

Here are a few examples of how employer negligence could result in a foot injury at work claim:

• Your foot was crushed by heavy items of stock that fell after being stacked unsafely in a warehouse.
• Where your toe was amputated by a cutting machine in a factory because your employer hadn’t provided steel toe-capped boots.
• If you sustained a broken foot at work after you tripped on a raised paving slab in your company’s car park because your employer had chosen not to repair it.
• Where your heel bone was fractured after you overstretched and fell off a ladder at work because you’d not been trained on how to work at height safely.

Don’t worry if you can’t see a scenario similar to your own here.  So long as your foot was injured in an accident caused by your employer’s actions, you could be entitled to begin a claim.

What Should I Do If I’ve Sustained a Work-Related Foot Injury?

If you are involved in an accident at work and your foot is injured, you may need to:

• Log the accident in the company’s accident report book.
• Tell your immediate supervisor about the accident and how it happened.
• Have your foot injury assessed by a medical professional so that it is diagnosed and treated correctly.

Taking these steps has two main benefits. Firstly, once your employer has been made aware of the accident, they could introduce measures that prevent similar incidents in the future. Secondly, these steps will mean you have some of the evidence you may need if you decide to begin a foot injury claim. We’ll provide more information on this subject next.

What Evidence Can Be Used for Foot Injury Claims?

It is more than likely that any claim you make against your employer for work-related foot injuries will be handled by their insurance provider. Before they offer to pay any compensation, they will want you to prove how the accident happened, the extent of the suffering caused by your foot injury and why your employer was to blame.

Examples of the types of evidence that could be used for workplace foot injury claims include:

• Medical records and x-rays to help confirm your injuries.
• Witness statements from colleagues or anyone else who saw what happened.
• CCTV footage of the accident.
• Your copy of the accident report form.
• Photographs of the accident scene and pictures of visible injuries such as bruising or disfigurement.

If you would like us to check whether there is enough evidence to support your claim, please call our team today.

How Long Do I Have to Claim Foot Injury at Work Compensation?

In the UK, for work-related foot injuries, you have a 3-year window to file a compensation claim, starting from the date you injured your foot or from when you link the injury to your job, as per the Limitation Act 1980. For instance, for immediate injuries like a broken foot at work, the three years begin on the injury date. However, for conditions like drop foot, which might emerge gradually, the 3-year period starts upon diagnosis or when you connect the condition to your work.

Given the complexities and potential exceptions in these cases, especially with conditions like drop foot that can develop over time, seeking legal advice for your specific situation is important as claims can become statute-barred if they are started outside of the allowable time limits. That would mean you may not be compensated even if your employer was to blame for your injuries.

How Much Compensation for Foot Injury at Work?

Settled foot injury compensation claims are normally based on two key heads of loss:

• General damages – compensation to cover pain, suffering and loss of amenity.
• Special damages – compensation for any costs or expenses caused by your workplace foot injuries.

When calculating general damages, your solicitor may refer to similar past cases and settlement figures listed in the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). Before doing so, they’ll need to verify the exact nature of your foot injury. As such, they’ll arrange for an independent specialist to assess your injuries and use their findings in conjunction with your medical records.

Our compensation table uses data from the JCG to give you an idea of potential foot injury compensation payouts. However, as each claim is unique, these figures are not guaranteed settlements.

• £83,960 – £109,650 compensation for a very severe foot injury at work, which results in enduring, severe pain or severe, permanent disability (for instance, forefoot amputation).
• £24,990 – £70,030 for serious to severe foot injuries, such as fractures affecting both feet with potential for future complications and surgeries and significant injuries to one foot leading to major disability.
• £13,740 – £24,990 for displaced fractures of the metatarsals causing deformity.
• £7,010 – £13,740 compensation for minor foot injuries (e.g., a simple broken foot at work, ruptured ligaments, puncture wounds) with symptoms like a permanent limp or pain.
• Up to £7,010 for straightforward workplace foot injuries (e.g., fractures, lacerations, bruises) with full or near full recovery.
• Up to £2,450 for modest foot injuries resolving quickly with minimal impact.

Special damages in foot injury claims could cover:

• Loss of earnings. This could cover any future losses if your ability to work is reduced because of your foot injury.
• Medical and rehabilitation costs.
• The cost of care at home.
• Vehicle or home modifications to help you cope with any long-term symptoms of your foot injury.

If your claim is feasible, your solicitor will explain how much compensation a foot injury could be worth once they’ve examined your case in detail.

Can I Claim If My Foot Injury Was Caused By Faulty Workplace Equipment?

Any machinery, equipment or tools you use at work should be safe, fit for purpose and properly maintained. This is a requirement of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

As such, if you’ve sustained a foot injury at work that was caused by a faulty piece of equipment at work, your employer may need to compensate you. For instance, if your foot was crushed after being run over by a forklift truck that was still being used even when the employer knew it had faulty brakes, you could be entitled to claim for any subsequent suffering.

Can I Claim Broken Foot Compensation if I’m Not a Full-Time Employee?

When it comes to workplace health and safety, all types of workers have the same rights. That means companies need to provide the same level of protection for the self-employed, subcontractors, consultants, agency workers and zero-hours staff as they do for their full-time employees.

As such, if your employer’s negligence has caused you to sustain a broken foot at work, for instance, you could start a claim against them regardless of the type of employment contract you have.

Do I Need a Solicitor to Make a Foot Injury Claim?

Solicitors who specialise in workplace personal injuries should understand the claims process very well. If you are suing your employer, their legal training and experience should make the claims process easier and could result in a higher compensation payout if the claim is won. Therefore, while you’re not obliged to instruct a specialist solicitor for accident-at-work claims, it might be beneficial to do so.

Some of the services our solicitors may offer during a foot injury at work claim include:

• Evidence collection.
• Filing your claim correctly and on time.
• Negotiating with your employer’s insurers should they raise any objections regarding your right to claim compensation.
• Sending regular updates about the progress of your case.
• Fighting your corner for a better foot injury settlement amount if the first offer is deemed to be too low.

All of the work listed above can be provided on a No Win, No Fee basis. If your claim is accepted, you’ll be asked to sign a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) which means that:

• No money needs to be paid upfront for your solicitor’s work.
• Your solicitor’s services do not need to be paid for if the claim is lost.
• An agreed percentage of your settlement will be used as your solicitor’s success fee if the claim is won.

For your protection, the percentage of your compensation that your solicitor can deduct as their success fee is capped at 25 per cent when using a CFA to fund their work.

Want to know if you could make a No Win, No Fee foot injury claim? If so, please call our team today.

Will the Claim to Go to Court?

It is unusual for foot injury claims to end up in court in our experience. Due to the costs and time involved in court hearings, most solicitors and insurers will strive to reach an amicable resolution to your claim out of court.

In some cases, however, if your case is strong enough a court hearing could be requested as a last resort. This might only be the case if your employer won’t accept liability for your accident or their settlement offer is deemed to be too low.

Contacting Us About an Ankle Injury Compensation Claim

We’re ready to help if you’d like to check if you could be compensated for a work-related foot injury. To contact us you can:

• Call us on 0333 241 2519 to have your claim assessed by a legal advisor.
• Use our live chat service to ask any questions.

Our initial advice is free and there’s no obligation to take legal action against your employer. However, all accepted foot injury at work claims are processed on a No Win, No Fee basis for your peace of mind.