A Guide To Making A Loss of Sight Compensation Claim

If you have suffered sight loss due to an accident that wasn’t your fault, you may wish to seek out loss of sight compensation. Interference with your vision could affect your daily and working life, and you may have also expereinced financial losses. This guide aims to explain whether you could be eligible to make a personal injury claim for your sight loss.

Additionally, we share how gathering evidence is important when pursuing compensation for your injuries. We also provide some different accidents that may lead you to suffer from reduced vision or complete blindness.

Compensation is also discussed, and we explain how amounts are calculated and what they aim to cover. After this, we look at the advantages of appointing a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel to work on your personal injury claim.

If you would like to discuss your particular personal injury compensation claim, you can contact a member of our advisory team. They are on hand to answer your questions and offer you free advice:

A doctor examining an eye patch over a woman's eye.

Jump To A Section

  1. Can You Claim Loss of Sight Compensation?
  2. How To Sue For Loss of Sight Compensation
  3. What Are Common Causes For Seeking Sight Loss Compensation?
  4. How Much Compensation From A Sight Loss Claim?
  5. Why Make A No Win No Fee Sight Loss Claim?
  6. More Resources About Claiming For A Personal Injury

Can You Claim Loss of Sight Compensation?

You may have an eligible claim for loss of sight compensation if you can show your case meets the following eligibility requirements:

  • A duty of care was owed to you.
  • This duty of care was breached.
  • This resulted in your injuries.

There are various instances where a duty of care is owed to you. Some examples include:

In The Workplace – All UK employers have a duty of care as stated within the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA). They must take practicable and reasonable steps to prevent employees from suffering harm as they work. There are numerous ways that employers can meet their health and safety obligations, such as providing essential safety goggles as part of personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce eye accidents at work.

Public Places – The parties in control of areas open to the public owe a duty of care as detailed in the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. They must take steps to prevent the public from being harmed whilst using their facilities and ensure their reasonable safety. Occupiers could help prevent an injury in a public place from occurring by performing regular risk assessments and maintenance checks on public equipment.

On The Roads – A duty of care applies to all road users. They must operate their vehicles and travel the roads in a way that poses the least risk of harm or damage. In addition, they must adhere to The Road Traffic Act 1988 and rules in the Highway Code to fully comply with their duty of care and minimize the risk of a road traffic accident. For example, they should adhere to the speed limits in place and pay full attention to the roads.

To see whether you may be eligible to seek compensation for your injuries, you can contact our advisors.

A worker wearing a hardhat and an eye bandage patch over one eye.

How To Sue For Loss of Sight Compensation

When making a claim for loss of sight compensation, you will need supporting evidence that shows your injuries were caused by another party who breached their duty of care to you. This could include:

  • Copies of medical records and the medical treatment you received.
  • Any video footage that captured the accident, such as from CCTV.
  • The contact details of eyewitnesses who can be approached at a later date for a statement.
  • Photographs of the injuries and the cause.

A solicitor could help you with gathering evidence to support your eye injury claim, if you choose to work with one.

Is There A Time Limit For Sight Loss Claims?

The Limitation Act 1980 states that personal injury claims must be started within 3 years of the date of injury. There can be variations to this, for example:

  • The three-year time limit for injured minors starts from the date they turn 18. Prior to their 18th birthday, it is frozen.
  • The time limit is frozen for claimants who lack the mental capacity to initiate their own claim. Should capacity return, the three-year limitation period starts from that date.

A litigation friend could make a claim on the claimant’s behalf while the time limit is frozen.

To see whether you are within the time limit to start a claim you can contact our advisors.

What Are Common Causes For Seeking Sight Loss Compensation?

There are various ways that you could experience sight loss or reduced vision following an accident. Some examples include:

  • Your employer fails to provide you with safety goggles while you are handling hazardous chemicals. This causes the chemicals to enter your eyes, and you suffer from total blindness.
  • A drunk driver collides head-on with your vehicle. This causes the windshield to break, and a glass shard enters your eye, resulting in you becoming blind in that eye.
  • You slip on a spillage in a supermarket that was not signposted. In the fall, you hit your head on the floor, which causes your retina to detach and interfere with your vision.

To see whether you could be eligible to claim compensation for your eye injuries, you can contact one of the advisors on our team.

A woman touching her face wearing an eye bandage over one eye.

How Much Compensation From A Sight Loss Claim?

Compensation payouts for successful loss of sight claims may comprise two types of damages, called general and special damages. General damages compensate the person for their physical and psychological injury. This is awarded in all successful claims.

The legal professionals who calculate general damages may refer to available medical evidence. In addition to this, they often consult a document called the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This publication provides a list of different injuries alongside compensation guidelines.

In the table below, we have used some of the JCG’s entries relating to eye injuries. Please only refer to these figures as guidelines. Also, note that the top entry does not come from the JCG.

Compensation Guidelines

Injury AreaSeverityCompensation Guidelines
Multiple severe injuries and special damages.Severe Up to £1,000,000+
Eyes(b) Total blindness In the area of £327,940
(c) Sight loss in one eye with reduced level of sight in remaining eye (i) £117,150 to £219,400
(c) Sight loss in one eye with reduced level of sight in remaining eye (ii)£78,040 to £129,330
(d) Total loss of one eye£66,920 to £80,210
(e) Complete loss of sight in one eye£60,130 to £66,920
(f) Incomplete loss of vision in one eye£28,900 to £48,040
(g) Permanent minor impairment of vision£11,120 to £25,600
(h) Minor injuries£4,820 to £10,660
(i) Transient injuries to the eye£2,690 to £4,820

Special damages provide compensation to the claimant for the financial harm they have experienced due to their injury. Since this is not always awarded, you should present evidence of the financial losses you wish to claim for. For example, this could include:

  • Receipts for any ophthalmologist appointments or special eyewear.
  • Wage slips that show how you lost income due to having to take time off work.
  • Travel tickets as proof of travel expenses to essential appointments.
  • The invoices of carers who supported you as you recovered.

For further guidance on how compensation is calculated in eye injury claims, you can contact one of our advisors.

Why Make A No Win No Fee Sight Loss Claim?

There are many benefits to working with a personal injury solicitor. They can help you collect supporting evidence, such as witness statements. In addition to this, they will be able to negotiate a compensation settlement on your behalf that covers both general and special damages.

The personal injury solicitors on our panel generally offer their clients a type of No Win No Fee contract known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). Loss of sight claims made under this arrangement can experience the following benefits:

  • There are no upfront solicitor service fees to pay.
  • Not having to pay any solicitor service fees as the claim progresses.
  • There are no fees for solicitors’ completed services if the claim is unsuccessful.
  • A success fee will be taken by the solicitor if the claim succeeds. This is a legally limited percentage of the compensation. Due to this limit, the claimant receives the majority of the compensation awarded.

To see if a solicitor on our panel could help you with your compensation claim, you can contact our advisors. They can be reached by:

A solicitor helping a client make a loss of sight compensation claim.

More Resources About Claiming For A Personal Injury

Further compensation claims guides by us:

External resources:

If you have any further questions regarding loss of sight compensation claims, you can contact our advisors.