Hand Injury Claims

Our 7 hand injury claims guide will help you understand everything you need to know about injury claims and how to start a claim for compensation.

Hand injuries are both extremely painful and frequently debilitating. Almost every aspect of life is impacted by having a hand injury, from basic hygiene to helping around the family home; from working to almost any form of sport. Even just getting around can be made more difficult or even impossible if your injury prevents you from driving. If your injury is to your dominant hand, the impact can be even greater. Any accident leading to a hand injury could be cause for a compensation claim. In particular, if your hand injury prevents you from working it is important that you get the compensation you deserve. Even if it doesn’t, there are many ways in which your hand injury will have impacted your life, which you deserve to be compensated for. Call us on 0121 565 4317 or apply online to find out how much compensation you may be entitled to as part of your hand injury claim.

Common 7 Hand Injury Types

Hand injuries are a common occurrence, whether at home or at the workplace. They range from extremely mild, with some light bruising or small cuts, to extremely serious with crushed bones or the need for amputation of part or all of the hand. Hand injuries can also occur without any visible sign, such as nerve damage or damage caused by excessive vibration.

Some of the more common hand injuries include:

  1. Cuts and Abrasions
    These are when the skin has been damaged and will usually include some bleeding. Abrasions are often very similar to a graze. Cuts are very common hand injuries sustained while working in a kitchen. Abrasions to your hands are highly likely if you have been cycling and are hit by a car, as you will naturally put your hands out to stop your fall. These can be very painful and may lead to complications if the graze becomes infected or if a cut has gone deep into the muscle. In either example, the worst cases may require surgery to put right.
  2. Burns Or Scalds To The Hands:
    Another common injury to the hands is a burn or scald. These usually occur in the workplace, whether it is in a kitchen dealing with hot pans and liquids or in a workshop or garage handling tools and machinery that reaches high temperatures. The hand has a huge number of nerve endings, meaning that any burn or scald to this area causes extreme pain and has a high risk of killing off nerve endings, leading to a permanent loss of sensation. Due to the difficulty of keeping the hands immobilized and also keeping them fully sterile, burns or scalds to the hands have a higher chance of becoming infected than other burns.
  3. Sprains Or Strains Of The Muscles, Tendons Or Ligaments In The Hands:
    Sprains or strains can range from very minor to very serious. For many people, they are relatively quickly healed with rest and ice, but if they persist you can find that you have permanent tendon damage for example. These injuries can lead to weakness of grip, which is frustrating and deeply inconvenient, as well as pain every time you try to move your hand into particular positions. If they do not heal quickly, sprains and strains of the hand quickly transition from minor annoyances to more major problems.
  4. Fractures To The Fingers:
    A fracture (break) to any bone is always painful, but the fingers are particularly sensitive. A fractured finger needs to be immobilized to allow it to heal correctly, usually by binding it to the other fingers around it or to a rigid object known as a splint. This loss of mobility can be particularly hard to navigate, even if it is only for a few weeks, but is essential if you are to retain full use of the fingers eventually. Not being able to use your fingers properly can have a disproportionate impact on your life, making it unsafe for you to drive a car and even inconvenient for you to pick up a cup of tea. Fractures to one or more fingers can often lead to the need to take time off work, and making a hand injury claim can be essential to ensure that you receive the compensation you deserve for your hand injury.
  5. Crush Injuries To The Hand Or Fingers:
    In contrast with fractures, which usually heal well, crush injuries to the hand can be extremely serious and very hard to fully heal. Not only are they incredibly painful, but surgery is usually required to repair the damage as far as possible, meaning that the time taken to recover is even greater than with a fracture. Crush injuries to the hand can even be life threatening if you are trapped in place for more than a short period of time and expert medical help is needed to protect you from even more serious consequences.
  6. Nerve Damage To The Hands:
    We have already mentioned that burns to the hands can lead to nerve damage in the hands as well. Other potential causes of nerve damage in the hands include contact with noxious substances, injuries caused by excessive vibration and injuries associated with ‘sheering’ damage across the skin, such as in the example of a cyclist knocked off their bike in a car accident. Nerve damage to the hands can lead to a loss of sensation, but it can also lead to a loss of motor control and constant pain. Nerve damage can be improved, but full recovery is not always expected or possible.
  7. Amputation Of Part Or All Of The Hand:
    Obviously amputation, whether medical or traumatic (as part of your accident), is the most severe form of hand injury. Losing a hand leads to a wide array of practical difficulties, as well as the emotional consequences of dealing with what has happened to you. Compensation may be the only way to ensure that you have access to the best possible prosthetics and rehabilitation, which gives you the best chance of getting your life back as close to normal as possible.

As you can see, injuries to the hand can be very serious and can have a huge impact on your life. They must be taken seriously. A no win no fee hand injury claim allows you to get the compensation you deserve for the injury you have sustained and can help you to get your life back on track. Call us on 0121 565 4317 or apply online to find out how we can help you to get the compensation you deserve for your hand injury.

Does It Matter How I Injured My Hand?

In order to make a hand injury claim, you must have been injured as a result of someone else not taking sufficient care. This is known as being negligent. If your employer does not provide you with the correct safety equipment or asks you to perform a task for which you are not adequately trained, this would be considered negligent. Similarly, if you are in a public place and you are cut by a sharp edge on a door handle, the company may be considered negligent for not having checked that the door is not a hazard. If your hand is crushed as a result of it becoming stuck in the door of a taxi or a lift, those may also be considered negligence on the part of someone else. As long as your accident was not your fault, we may be able to make a hand injury claim on your behalf.

How Much Compensation Might I Be Entitled To?

The amount of compensation you receive for any hand injury claim depends on the severity of the injury and any expenses you may have incurred as a result of it. If your hand injury means that you are not able to work, for example, this would lead to a larger compensation claim than you might otherwise expect.

In terms of the amount you can claim for your hand injury itself, these can vary from the region of around £1000 for an injury to the thumb that heals moderately quickly to over £160,000 for the loss of the use of both hands. The range of payments for each type of injury can be quite broad, so it is important that you call us on 0121 565 4317 or apply online so that we can give you more specific expert advice.

Hand Injury Claim

What If I Can’t Afford To Make A Hand Injury Claim?

We understand that it can be scary to make a hand injury claim. There is the worry about how difficult the process may be and also the concern that you might rack up huge legal bills and be left with no way to pay them. We want to make your hand injury claim as easy and stress-free as possible. In the majority of cases, we are able to offer our services on a no win no fee basis. This means that you do not need to pay anything up front, meaning that you don’t need to worry about whether you can afford to make a claim. Furthermore, if we are not able to win your claim for you, you don’t need to pay a penny. This means that you are never left worse off as a result of attempting to get the compensation you deserve. If we are unable to offer you a no win no fee arrangement, we will still discuss further funding options to try to get you the compensation you need to get your life back on track after your hand injury.