If you’re injured in an accident, you could recover fully and lead a normal life following rehabilitation and treatment. However, that’s not always possible if you’ve suffered a facial injury that’s left you disfigured. Importantly, if you’ve suffered a disfiguring injury in an accident somebody else caused, you may be eligible to make a facial disfigurement injury claim for compensation.

As well as reading the information in this guide, you’re free to call us for a no-obligation assessment of your claim. A specialist from our team will go through everything with you and explain whether a claim is viable. If it is, and you are happy to proceed with a personal injury solicitor on our team, you’ll get expert legal representation on a No Win No Fee basis.

Please call 0800 6524 881 to speak with us today or read on for more on facial disfigurement injury claims.

Am I Eligible To Make A Facial Disfigurement Injury Claim?

Generally, a personal injury solicitor will check to see if you might be eligible to claim facial disfigurement compensation by asking questions such as:

1. Were you owed a duty of care by the defendant?
2. Did the defendant make a mistake that caused an accident?
3. Did you sustain a facial disfigurement because of the accident?

If you’ve answered yes to all 3 questions, one of our personal injury solicitors may offer to represent you. As evidence to prove your case is so important, we’ll explain the types of information you could provide later on in this guide.

Common Accidents That Can Cause Facial Disfigurements

It is important to reiterate that only incidents caused by somebody else’s negligence would mean you may be eligible to claim compensation for your facial injuries. To give you some idea of what this means, we’ve added a few example scenarios below:

• If your face was burned by chemicals at work because you’d not been trained on safe handling techniques.
• Where your jaw was broken after you were knocked off a bike by a drunk or dangerous driver.
• If your face was scalded when a hot drink was spilt on you by a waiter carrying too many items at once.
• If your cheek and forehead sustained damage after you were struck by a falling object on a building site.
• Where you broke multiple bones in your face after a fall from a height at work because of inadequate training.
• Where you were bitten on the face by a dog whose owner hadn’t got it under control.
• If you suffered a facial disfigurement due to a botched cosmetic surgery.

Even if we haven’t described the type of accident you were involved in here, we’re happy to review your case for free and explain your options so please get in touch.

Common Injuries That Can Cause A Facial Disfigurement

Some of the injuries that could result in temporary or permanent facial disfigurement include:

The amount of compensation paid for injuries that result in facial disfigurement can be affected by:

• The age of the claimant.
• The number of operations needed and the complexity of the surgery.
• The level of psychological suffering.
• How dependent the claimant is on others.
• The cosmetic impact of the injury.

While surgery can sometimes fix facial deformities after an accident, others can’t. Longer-term injuries can lead to emotional problems, financial suffering and even discrimination. These are all factors which may need to be considered if you decide to make a facial disfigurement compensation claim.

How Much Compensation For Facial Disfigurement?

One of your solicitor’s roles in a personal injury claim is to try and determine how you’ve been affected due to your facial injuries and how they might affect your life in the future.

To ascertain your physical and emotional prognosis, they’ll arrange for you to visit an independent medical expert. During the appointment, your injuries will be assessed and you’ll be asked questions about their impact. The specialist will write a report following the meeting and this will help your solicitor to work out how much compensation for a facial disfigurement could be paid. Our compensation calculator lists several facial injuries and the associated level of compensation:

The figures listed are guideline amounts. You could be compensated differently if the claim is successful.

Special damages might also be awarded if you have sustained costs because of your facial disfigurement. These could include:

• Private plastic surgery costs.
• Travel expenses.
• The cost of a carer.
• Lost income.
• Loss of amenity where the disfigurement prevents any of your normal activities.
• Any long-term reduction in earnings.

To find out how much compensation for a facial injury you may be eligible to claim, please call us on 0800 6524 881.

Criminal Injury Claims For Facial Injuries

Many facial injuries are caused by physical assaults. These can include knife wounds, broken noses, broken jaws and acid burns.

While these types of incidents won’t lead to a personal injury claim, you could receive compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). Our solicitors are happy to help you do so.

Importantly, injuries claimed for through the CICA scheme must have been reported to the police. However, you could be paid compensation by CICA even if the police didn’t catch, charge or sentence the party responsible for your injuries.

So long as you cooperated with the police and there’s enough evidence for a CICA officer to believe your injuries were sustained in an unprovoked assault, you could be compensated.

To discuss a criminal injury claim with us today, please call our advice line.

Evidence To Support Facial Disfigurement Injury Claims

It probably goes without saying that you won’t be compensated for a facial disfigurement if you don’t have evidence to back up your claim. This will need to prove the accident you were involved in, why the defendant was to blame and how serious the disfigurement is. The following evidence could all be useful for your claim:

• Photographs. Providing before and after photographs of your face should help to clarify the extent of your disfigurement. Other photos from the accident scene could also help to prove how the accident happened.
• Accident reports. If you logged an accident report because you were injured in a public place (or at work), your copy of the report could be used to show where and when the accident occurred.
• Medical records. To prove how seriously you’ve been injured, your solicitor will obtain medical notes, X-rays and scan results from the hospital where your facial injuries were treated.
• Witness statements. If there is an ambiguity regarding liability for your injuries, your solicitor might ask any witnesses to provide a statement of events.
• CCTV footage. Proving liability for your accident should be easier if there is any CCTV, mobile phone or dashcam footage.
• Financial records. Any receipts or invoices for expenses you’ve had as a result of your facial injury should be kept. This could include costs of private treatment, medication, travel to appointments, etc.

If you have any evidence that could help your facial disfigurement injury claim, please let your advisor know when you call for a free consultation.

Time Limits For Claiming Facial Disfigurement Compensation

You can start legal action for facial disfigurement injuries within a 3-year limitation period. Generally, that will commence on the date of the accident that caused your suffering.

Our usual advice is to make contact with our team while the events leading up to the incident are still clear. This will make it easier to recall what happened. It should also help your solicitor because they’ll have ample time in which to gather evidence to support your claim.

If your claim is filed outside of the 3-year time limit, you could be refused compensation, so it’s best to act quickly.

If your child (under 18) has sustained disfiguring facial injuries, the time limit for their claim won’t begin until their 18^th birthday. Until then, you can seek damages on their behalf as their litigation friend and one of our solicitors could help you to do so.

Starting The Facial Disfigurement Injury Claims Process

Our team of advisors is on hand to help with the facial disfigurement compensation claims process. If you call 0800 6524 881 today, you’ll receive free advice and an advisor will review your options on a no-obligation basis.

Should one of our solicitors agree to represent you, they’ll manage the whole case for you on a No Win No Fee basis. Therefore, you won’t pay any legal fees upfront and you’ll only have to cover the cost of your personal injury solicitor’s work if your claim is successful.

For more information about the process of making a facial disfigurement injury claim, please feel free to connect to our live chat service.