Injuries affecting your elbow can dramatically affect your mobility. Whether you’re suffering from tennis elbow or an elbow fracture, you’re likely to find it difficult to complete tasks that you’d normally take for granted. Importantly, if somebody else was responsible for your injured elbow you may be eligible to make an elbow injury claim for compensation.

If you are considering making a claim for an elbow injury, we’re ready to help. Our team provides a no-obligation telephone consultation where you’ll be given free advice about your options. If your claim has a reasonable chance of being won, you’ll be connected with one of our personal injury solicitors. They’ll review your case further and will work for you on a No Win No Fee basis if they agree to represent you.

To discuss an elbow injury claim with us now, please call 0800 6524 881 to begin. Alternatively, you can find out more about personal injury claims for elbow injuries throughout the rest of our guide.

Am I Eligible To Make An Elbow Injury Compensation Claim?

Our team of solicitors have several decades of experience handling personal injury claims. So they don’t waste your time unnecessarily, they’ll only usually accept elbow injury compensation claims with a reasonable chance of success. To assess this in your case, they’ll check whether:

• The defendant owed you a duty of care; and
• An act of negligence by the defendant led to an accident; and
• You suffered an elbow injury as a result.

Don’t get too hung up on proving a duty of care as this is something your solicitor can check quite easily. However, during the claims process, you can help your solicitor prove who caused the accident and how severe the injury to your elbow is/was by providing evidence. We’ll look into what types of evidence you could use to do so a little later on in this guide.

Common Causes Of Elbow Injury Claims

In this section, we’ve provided a range of scenarios that could enable you to make an elbow injury claim. Don’t worry if there’s not an example similar to your own experience, we could still help you to take action.

The examples include:

• If you tripped over a cable in an accident in a shop and injured your elbow during the fall.
• Where your elbow was injured after you were knocked off of your motorbike by a driver who was using their mobile phone.
• If you sustained a repetitive injury at work after using vibrating tools over a long period of time.
• Where your arm was crushed by heavy items that fell on you after they were stacked incorrectly.
• If a child injured their elbow at school after falling from damaged school playground equipment.
• Where you injured your elbow whilst watching or participating in a sporting activity due to unsafe facilities.

If you believe you should be compensated for an elbow injury, call us on 0800 6524 881 and ask an advisor for free advice about your options.

Common Types Of Injuries To Elbows

As mentioned above, you could claim compensation for any type of elbow injury caused by somebody else’s negligence. Some of the more common elbow injuries our personal injury solicitors deal with include:

• Repetitive Strain Injury

Repetitive strain injuries (RSI) can occur in any environment where repetitive tasks are undertaken over a prolonged period of time. This may include the use of industrial machinery to those with a secretarial role.

RSI is a type of injury that impacts the ligaments of the elbow which become inflamed, and difficult to move which can lead to extreme pain. While there are medical treatments available to reduce the pain, in some cases it is simply a case of managing the pain without a long-term full recovery. Those who have experienced repetitive strain injuries will be well aware of the potential impact on both working and personal lives.

• Tennis Elbow

As the name suggests, usually associated with tennis, tennis elbow (also known as epicondylitis) is a form of repetitive stress injury and usually occurs in people who over extended periods of time are using their arm to carry out repetitive actions. Overusing the arm can cause tendons to become inflamed leading to a lot of pain and discomfort around the elbow and is often seen in various professions such as painters, plasterers and those working on production lines, among others.

If you have been employed in a job that you think may have caused tennis elbow you may find our tennis elbow claims advice helpful.

• Breaks And Fractures

As the elbow joint is one of the more active joints around the body, a simple break/fracture, let alone a more serious injury, can take some time to recover. In many cases, a simple fracture/break of a bone will result in a shorter recovery period than that compared to ligament damage. The average fracture/break recovery period is measured in weeks as opposed to months.

• Bursitis

Bursitis is an extremely painful and often debilitating condition. In basic terms, after receiving a severe blow to the elbow the body can react by introducing a fluid-filled sac (bursa) under the skin to protect the injured area. This makes the area extremely tender, leading to extreme pain and swelling. In the majority of cases, the sac will disburse without the need for surgery although there have been occasions where the sac needs to be drained by a medical procedure.

If you have this condition you may find our bursitis compensation claims advice useful.

Common Claims Involving Elbow Injuries

Some of the most common claims involving elbow injuries that our solicitors could help you to claim compensation for include:

If you’d like to know more about your options, please contact our team today for a free case review.

How Much Compensation Will I Get For An Elbow Injury?

Determining how severe your elbow injury is and how long it will take for you to recover from the injury are two important elements to your claim when calculating what amount of compensation for an elbow injury you could potentially be awarded as settlement. All claims differ but generally, you could claim compensation to cover:

• The pain and suffering your elbow injury led to.
• The impact your injuries had on your regular hobbies and social activities.
• Any lost earnings resulting from your elbow injury.
• Medical expenses that might include physiotherapy for your elbow and other remedial treatment.
• Costs linked to the time somebody else had to care for you while you were recovering.
• Travel expenses you incurred due to your injuries.
• The cost of making changes to your vehicle or home to help you cope with a long-term elbow injury.
• Future income losses if your elbow injury will reduce your capacity to earn.

If you work with one of our solicitors, they’ll discuss everything in detail to try and fully understand how you’ve suffered. They’ll then fight your corner to try and secure as much compensation as possible.

Elbow Injury Compensation Amounts

• £39,170 – £54,830 compensation for a severe elbow injury leading to long-term disability.
• £15,650 up to £32,010 compensation for severe elbow injuries towards the lower end of the scale, such as a radial head fracture that causes significant impairment and use of the elbow, but does not require surgery or lead to a significant level of long-term disability.
• Up to £12,590 compensation for a moderate/minor elbow injury such as a broken elbow that doesn’t cause permanent damage.

These figures are based on the severity of the injury to your elbow. The claims process requires claimants to have a medical assessment in most cases. This usually involves a local appointment with an independent expert. After they’ve examined your elbow injury, they’ll write a report to set out the extent of your injury and your prognosis.

Evidence To Support An Elbow Injury Claim

At the start of this guide, we explained that you’d need to supply evidence to help prove how your accident and elbow injury happened and how you’ve suffered as a result. There are various types of evidence that might help including:

• Video recordings of the accident happening. If there is any CCTV or dashcam footage, you should try to secure it as quickly as possible before it is deleted.
• X-rays and medical notes from the hospital that treated your elbow. These can be requested by your solicitor when needed.
• Details of anybody who saw your accident. Witness statements might help to prove how the accident happened if the defendant denies liability.
• A copy of the accident report form relating to the incident in which you were injured. Most organisations are required to have an accident report book to record any incidents on their premises.
• Photographs of the accident scene. These can help to prove what caused your elbow injury especially if taken as soon as possible after you were injured.
• A diary of events and expenses. You should keep a record of any costs you’ve incurred because of your damaged elbow. Also, keep records of the dates you had to miss family events or could not go to work because you were injured.

During your free consultation, an advisor will happily consider any evidence you have available for your elbow injury claim so please have it ready, if possible when you get in touch with us.

Time Limits For Claiming Elbow Injury Compensation

It’s important to point out that there are time limits in the UK for all personal injury claims. You’ll have 3-years to claim and the limitation period usually begins from the date of your accident. However, if you’re claiming compensation for an injury such as tennis elbow, the time limit would begin from the date tennis elbow was diagnosed.

Where a child has suffered an injury to an elbow, the 3-year limit does not apply until they reach 18. You could however claim for them (as a litigation friend) at any time before they turn 18 years old.

Although you may have plenty of time to claim, we’d suggest seeking legal representation sooner rather than later. That way, you’ll give you and your solicitor enough time to collect supporting evidence and to arrange for medical reports to be gathered.

Starting The Elbow Injury Claims Process

If you decide to claim compensation for an elbow injury with one of our solicitors, they’ll represent you on a No Win No Fee basis if your case is taken on. That means that rather than paying them for their work up front, a success fee will be deducted from any compensation your receive. You won’t have to pay for the solicitor’s work if your case fails. Legally, success fees are capped at a maximum of 25% of any compensation you’re paid and your percentage will be clearly listed in your No Win No Fee agreement.

To begin a claim or to check if one of our solicitors can represent you, simply call us today on 0800 6524 881. We’re available 24 hours a day by phone or live chat if you have any further questions about making an elbow injury compensation claim.