I Suffered A Nerve Injury, Could I Claim Compensation?

By Stephen Bishop. Last Updated 14th May 2024. If you have suffered nerve damage in an accident that resulted from a third party breaching the duty of care they owed you, you may be wondering if you could be entitled to make a personal injury claim for nerve damage compensation. In this guide, we will explain the criteria your case must meet in order to be valid, including the time limits for beginning legal proceedings. We will also explore the evidence you could gather to strengthen your case.

Following this, we’ll touch on personal injury compensation and how it aims to address the different ways you were impacted by the nerve damage.

Finally, we will explain the benefits of working with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel when you make a nerve damage claim, and the services they could offer.

Our team of advisors are on hand to answer any questions you may have about the claims process. An advisor from our team can provide a free consultation, during which they can offer advice and could potentially connect you with a solicitor from our panel.

To get started:

A doctor examines a patient's right hand with nerve damage

Jump To A Section

  1. I Suffered A Nerve Injury, Could I Claim Compensation?
  2. How Could A Nerve Injury Occur?
  3. Average Payout For Nerve Damage- Compensation Calculator
  4. Steps To Take If You Suffer A Nerve Injury
  5. How Legal Helpline Could Help You To Make A Personal Injury Claim
  6. I Suffered A Nerve Injury, Could I Claim Compensation With A No Win No Fee Solicitor?
  7. Nerve Injury Claim Resources

I Suffered A Nerve Injury, Could I Claim Compensation?

Claiming for a nerve injury can be quite a complex thing to prove. That’s because, unlike other types of injury, there aren’t always any visible signs. Therefore, our advice is that you should have a specialist on your side who understands what evidence is needed to prove such a claim.

Ordinarily, for a solicitor take on a claim, they’ll need to be shown that:

  • You’ve been involved in an accident.
  • That was caused by somebody who owed you a duty of care and was negligent.
  • And you suffered nerve damage in that accident.

As we go through this guide, we’ll look at different types of a nerve, the symptoms of a nerve injury, how they can become injured and when somebody else might be liable for your suffering. Then we’ll look at potential compensation amounts and what evidence you should try and collect to support your claim.

It’s important to note that we can’t list every type of accident or injury within this guide. Therefore, even if your injury isn’t listed, we could still help you make a claim. So long as your suffering was caused by another person’s negligence, you could be entitled to compensation.

When you’ve finished reading this guide, if you have any further questions, or want to begin a claim, please contact the number at the top of the page.

Personal Injury Claims Process – Are There Exceptions To The Time Limit?

You generally have 3 years from the date of injury to begin making a claim. However, there are 2 exceptions to this rule.

One of these exceptions is if the injured party is under 18. If so, the time limit does not begin until they turn 18. However, before this time, a child cannot make their own claim. If one is to be made, a litigation friend must be appointed to do so on behalf of the injured party.

Similarly, a litigation friend must claim on behalf of any individual with a reduced mental capacity who is unable to do so themselves. Their time limit is also suspended. It would only start if they ever make a recovery.

Reach out today if you have any questions about the process of personal injury claims and the time limits involved.

How Could A Nerve Injury Occur?

There are numerous types of accidents that could potentially cause nerve damage in one or multiple areas of your body. However it was caused, you may be eligible to claim nerve injury compensation if another party breached a duty of care which they owed you and this contributed to the incident that harmed you. Examples of accidents that could cause a nerve injury include:

  • A slip, trip or fall in a work area which your employer failed to keep safe. Such accidents could also happen in a public place, such as a shop, if there was a hazard, such as a wet floor, and the controller of the public space did not take any steps to address this issue.
  • While at work, you were injured while using heavy machinery. The cause may have been that the machinery was faulty, and your employer did not take reasonable steps to address this issue. Alternatively, your employer may have failed to have provided proper training for the machinery you were assigned to use.
  • A road traffic accident such as a car crash or being hit by a vehicle while cycling. A vehicle driver may have caused the incident because they were drunk or failed to drive with due care and attention.

Contact our advisors for free today if you would like to discuss your eligibility to claim for a nerve injury.

Average Payout For Nerve Damage – Compensation Calculator

It can be difficult to offer you an accurate average payout for a nerve damage claim as a lot of factors can influence the awarded compensation. Factors that played a part in one claim might not apply to your claim, and so can give you an inaccurate idea of the compensation you could seek.

What we can do, is explain how compensation is calculated and offer you potential figures for a compensation amount that could be awarded for the injury you have suffered and the pain and distress it may have caused you. This figure is known as general damages. You could use a nerve damage compensation calculator but they aren’t always accurate. Instead, you could use the table below.

The figures in our table come from the 16th edition of the Judicial College Guidelines released in April 2022 and feature several injuries that could be associated with nerve damage.

InjuryCompensation RangeDetails
Multiple Serious Injuries Plus Special DamagesUp to £250,000+If you are eligible to claim for multiple serious injuries including nerve damage, then you may receive a payout covering all of them as well as any related special damages, such as loss of earnings.
Severe Back injury: (i)£111,150 to £196,450Injuries affecting the nerve root causing excessive pain are covered in this bracket.
Severe Back injury: (ii)£90,510 to £107,910Nerve root damage that could result in loss of sensation as well as other issues is covered in this bracket.
Moderate Back injury: (i)£33,880 to £47,320This bracket includes irritation to the nerve root due to disc damage.
Severe Shoulder Injury£23,430 to £58,610Cases of shoulder injuries in this bracket often involve a neck injury that involves brachial plexus damage.
Serious Shoulder Injury£15,580 to £23,430Dislocation affecting the lower part of the brachial plexus.
Serious Thumb Injury£15,370 to £20,460Nerve damage requiring surgery and implants is an injury covered in this bracket.
Moderate Thumb Injury£11,800 to £15,370Injuries causing tendon or nerve damage are covered in this bracket.

This is only part of the compensation you can seek. You can also seek an amount to address financial losses from your injury. We explain more about that below but if you are looking for information about the average payout for Sciatica from a car accident, or more specifically what you could be awarded in your claim, then please reach out to one of our advisers.

Average Payout For Nerve Damage – Other Types Of Compensation

If you are able to make a successful claim for sciatic nerve damage compensation, you could be potentially eligible to claim special damages if you have suffered financial loss as a direct result of your injury. This is partly why we are unable to provide an average payout for nerve damage in the UK as special damages will likely vary significantly between claims.

Special damages can be requested for losses and costs caused by effects such as:

  • Being unable to work and losing out on income
  • Paying for medicine or treatment
  • Care requirements costs
  • Requiring aids or modifications for your home to help you cope with your nerve injury

As said, any amount you request should account for your personal needs and factor in the length of your injury. For example, a settlement for nerve damage in the hand could take into account a loss of earnings if you were unable to perform your job duties due to it being highly physical.

If you get in touch with our advisors today, they can discuss everything you may be able to include in your claim and provide a free compensation estimate.

Steps To Take If You Suffer A Nerve Injury

If you suffer nerve damage from an accident and decide to make a nerve injury compensation claim, you’ll need to try and provide evidence to support you. Ideally, you’ll be able to show what happened, who was to blame and what injuries you sustained. To try and do this, you could provide:

  • Medical records from any doctor or hospital that treated you.
  • Photographs of the accident scene. Where possible, this should be done ASAP to try and capture the cause of the accident before it’s removed or repaired.
  • Witness statements from anybody who saw what happened.
  • A copy of an accident report. If your accident happened in a public place, or at work, then, so long as you report the incident, the business operator should record the date, time, details of the incident and any advice given in an accident book or similar.
  • Photographs of any visible injuries.

Once you have as much evidence as possible, you could speak with one of our advisers so that they can assess your chances of being compensated.

A doctor applies a cast and bandages to a patient's arm with nerve damage

How Legal Helpline Could Help You To Make A Personal Injury Claim

If you’ve decided to make a damaged nerve compensation claim, we hope that you’re considering letting Legal Helpline assist you. Here is some more information about us and how we can help:

  • All claims taken on by our panel of solicitors are done so on a No Win No Fee basis
  • Our claims line is open 24-7 so you can claim whenever it suits you
  • Our team of advisers offer a no-obligation assessment of all claims and also free legal advice
  • The solicitors on our panel always work hard to ensure you receive the correct level of compensation
  • If your claim is taken on, you’ll receive updates throughout the case, so you’ll know what’s happening

If you need any further information about how we could help you, please call the number at the end of this guide.

I Suffered A Nerve Injury, Could I Claim Compensation With A No Win No Fee Solicitor?

Starting a claim for nerve damage can seem intimidating, and it can be hard to know where to start. If you’re interested in claiming compensation for nerve damage, a lawyer from our panel may be able to help.

Our panel work on a No Win No Fee basis. They do this by offering their work under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), which is a type of No Win No Fee contract. Working under a CFA means they won’t ask for a fee to start working on your claim, nor will they take a fee for their continued services. Similarly, if your claim doesn’t succeed, your lawyer won’t take a fee for their work on the case.

However, if your case is successful, your lawyer will take a small percentage of your compensation as their success fee. This percentage is legally capped, allowing you to keep the majority of what you receive.

Contact Our Team

Working with a lawyer can come with many benefits; they can offer more information on the average payout for nerve damage, help you collect evidence, and explain any legal jargon that may come up throughout the claims process.

To find out if a lawyer from our panel could help you with your nerve damage compensation claim, get in touch with our team today by:

Nerve Injury Claim Resources

You’ve now reached the end of this guide about claiming for an injured nerve. Hopefully, the information has proved useful and helped you decide whether to claim or not. Listed below are some more or our guides plus some other relevant resources.

  • Peripheral Neuropathy: This NHS guide explains when nerve damage occurs in the body’s extremities like the feet, hands and arms.
  • The Brain And Spine Foundation: A UK charity set up to support those affected by neurological problems.
  • Sciatica Information: An NHS guide abut sciatic which is caused when the sciatic nerve is irritated.
  • Head Injury Claims: If you’ve endured a head injury through no fault of your own, you could make a personal injury claim. Read our guide about it. 
  • Arm Injury Claims: Nerve damage in the arms can cause concern. Our guide could help you see if you’re able to claim. 
  • Assault Claims: You might not be aware that you could claim compensation for assault. Read our guide to find out how.