I Sprained My Ankle At Work, Can I Make A Claim?

If you have sprained your ankle at work due to your employer’s negligence, you could be eligible to make a claim. This guide will explore the criteria you must meet in order to put forward a valid personal injury claim.   

sprained ankle at work

Sprained ankle at work claims guide

Additionally, it will provide an explanation of what is meant by negligence and what evidence you could provide to prove your accident resulted because of it.

Furthermore, we will discuss the advantages of opting for a No Win No Fee agreement with a solicitor from our panel. This is a way you can fund legal representation without paying an upfront fee for their services.

We understand you may still have questions after reading. If so, you can contact our team of advisors to discuss your potential sprained ankle at work claim. To get in touch, you can:

  • Call us on 0113 460 1215
  • Request a call-back by filling out our online claim form.
  • Use the live chat feature to speak to one of our advisors.

Choose A Section

  1. Can I Make A Sprained Ankle At Work Claim?
  2. What Accidents Lead To Ankle Injury Claims?
  3. Evidence For A Sprained Ankle At Work Claim
  4. What Payout Can I Get?
  5. How To Work With A No Win No Fee Solicitor
  6. Extra Information About Making A Sprained Ankle At Work Claim

Can I Make A Sprained Ankle At Work Claim?

To make a sprained ankle at work claim, you must show that you sustained your injury through an accident at work that occurred due to your employer’s negligence.

In the workplace, employers owe their employees a duty of care to ensure they are kept safe from harm. This involves employers taking reasonable steps to reduce the risk of any hazards. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 lays out the duties that they must adhere to.

However, there are cases where they might fail to do so, leading to them breaching their duty of care. This could lead to someone sustaining harm. 

For example, if the building you work in has a leak it may have caused the floor to get wet and slippery resulting in a slip, trip or fall hazard. If when learning of this, your employer does not carry out maintenance in due time and you sustain an injury, they may be held liable for the accident that caused you harm. 

Please get in touch with our panel of advisors for information on whether you can make a sprained ankle at work claim. 

HSE Statistics For An Injury At Work

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website provides useful statistics on workplace injuries. These statistics are collated by the HSE from reports made to them by employers under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). 

As such, the statistics can provide an insight into the nature of ankle injuries sustained in accidents at work. They show that there were 4,889 non-fatal ankle injuries in 2020/21. 

What Accidents Lead To Ankle Injury Claims?

Some accidents that lead to an ankle injury might include:

  • Slips, trips and fall accidents on the same level: For example, exposed and tangled wires in the walkway of an office are a hazard. They could lead to an employee tripping over and sustaining a sprained ankle at work. 
  • Being struck by a moving object: A pile of boxes that weren’t stored away correctly could fall onto an employees foot.
  • A failure on the employer’s part to carry out regular maintenance: An employer should ensure they carry out regular checks on machinery to ensure it is safe to use. If they fail to do so, faulty machinery could malfunction, causing an injury. 

It’s important to note that not all accidents lead to workplace accident claims. You must be able to prove that negligence resulted in you sustaining harm. See below to find out what evidence you could gather to support your sprained ankle at work claim.

Evidence For A Sprained Ankle At Work Claim

To make a claim, you need to prove the personal injury suffered is due to your employer’s negligence. There are certain steps you can take to do so.

Firstly, seek medical advice for a professional to assess your injuries. Later on, you should be able to acquire medical reports that show the details of the injury and any treatment you were given.  

It is imperative to start collecting evidence as soon as possible after you sprained your ankle at work. Therefore, if able, you should fill out the accident report book at your place of work. This can provide crucial evidence of what happened at the time of the event. 

Next, you should gather some evidence from the scene of the accident. For example, you could take photos of the hazard that caused the injury, retrieve any CCTV footage that shows the accident and get contact details from any witnesses who saw the event. 

Finally, we recommend seeking legal advice. This is not a requirement to claim. However, an experienced accident at work solicitor from our panel could help you through each stage of your claim. 

Call our team to find out more.

What Payout Can I Get?

The Judicial College, published the sixteenth edition of their guidelines in April 2022. The guidelines provide bracket compensation amounts for different injuries.

Solicitors may use these when valuing the general damages portion of your settlement. This head of claim compensates for the pain and suffering you have experienced due to your injuries. 

We have used figures from the guidelines in the table below. Remember that these are estimates of what you could receive; every case is different due to the unique circumstances of each accident. 

InjuryDescriptionCompensation Bracket
Very Severe Ankle Injury (a)Injuries in this bracket could result in deformity and there may be a risk of amputation.£50,060 to £69,700
Severe Ankle Injury (b)Injuries in this bracket take an extensive amount of time to treat and often leave significant residual disability. £31,310 to £50,060
Moderate Ankle Injury (c)Ligament tears and fractures are examples of injuries in this bracket. They may result in less serious disabilities, such as difficulty walking for a long period of time.£13,740 to £26,590
Modest Ankle Injury (d)This bracket includes less serious sprains and ligament injuries as well as fractures that are minor or undisplaced.Up to £13,740
Serious Achilles Tendon Injury (b)Cases where there has been a complete division of the tendon and despite being successfully repaired there are some ongoing issues, such as residual weakness and a limp. £24,990 to £30,090
Moderate Achilles Tendon Injury (c)Cases include where there has been significant damage to the tendon.£12,590 to £21,070
Minor Achilles Tendon Injury (d)Injuries in this bracket include tendon damage due to turning over the ankle.£7,270 to £12,590
Serious Foot Injury (e)Injuries are less serious in this bracket but still cause ongoing pain due to traumatic arthritis.£24,990 to £39,200
Moderate Foot Injury (f)Where someone has experienced permanent deformity and ongoing symptoms due to a displaced metatarsal fracture.£13,740 to £24,990
Modest Food Injury (g)Injuries in this bracket might include simple metatarsal fractures that cause ongoing symptoms.Up to £13,740

There is also a second head of claim for which you could receive compensation, called special damages. They cover the past and future monetary losses incurred as a result of the injury.

For example, if your sprained ankle left you unable to walk and you needed to arrange transport to get to a medical appointment, you may be able to claim the travel costs back. It is important to note that you must keep evidence of the costs. For this example, you may be able to retain the receipt or travel ticket as evidence.   

Contact our panel of advisors to find out more about how much ankle injury at work compensation you could be entitled to.  

How To Work With A No Win No Fee Solicitor

Choosing a No Win No Fee solicitor means you do not have to pay fees upfront or during the course of your claim. Also, if a claim is unsuccessful, you do not have to pay for your solicitor’s services.

If a claim is successful, you will be charged a fee from your compensation. This is capped by law. You may also see this referred to as a success fee.    

If you choose to work with a solicitor from our panel, further details about the success fee can be found in the Conditional Fee Agreement you sign prior to starting your claim.

To find out if you are eligible to make a No Win No fee personal injury claim, contact our advisors, they are available 24/7. They can assess whether you’re eligible to have a solicitor from our panel work on your sprained ankle at work claim.

Start A Sprained Ankle At Work Claim Today

For more information about making a sprained ankle at work claim, you can get in touch with our team. You can reach them by:

  • Calling us on 0113 460 1215
  • Requesting a call-back by filling out our online claim form.
  • Using the live chat feature to speak to one of our advisors.

Extra Information About Making A Sprained Ankle At Work Claim

Below, we have included some additional resources that you may find helpful, including some of our other relevant guides.

Extra external links that may be useful:

We hope this guide on making a sprained ankle at work claim has helped. However, if you have any other questions, please get in touch using the details above.

Edited by Meg McConnell

Written by Jess Oakland