£25,000 For a Rib Fracture: Compensation Calculator – A Case Study and Guide To Calculating Broken Rib Compensation Claims

£25,000 For A Broken Rib: A Guide To Claiming Compensation

If you’ve sustained a rib fracture through no fault of your own, you may be experiencing pain and subsequent incapacity. However, if third party negligence was responsible for your injury, you could be entitled to make a claim for a broken rib.

This article aims to help you know your rights in making a claim for a broken rib, explaining everything from how to determine whether you have a case, to how much compensation you could be entitled to. 

However, it’s always best to seek help from a legal professional to ensure you don’t risk losing the compensation you deserve. Asking a personal injury lawyer to handle your case can also ease the legal process, allowing you to focus on recovery. 

To see how our panel of personal injury lawyers could help you, please contact one of our advisors today for a free consultation. Available 24/7, please call 0800 408 7826 or use the live chat feature on your screen.

claim for a broken rib

Select a Section

  1. A Guide To Calculate Compensation Claims For Rib Fractures
  2. What Is A Rib Fracture?
  3. Could I Experience Financial Losses From A Rib Fracture?
  4. You Could Be Eligible For A Care Claim
  5. Ways Solicitors Calculate Broken Rib Compensation Amounts
  6. £25,000 Case Study: Compensation Payouts For Rib Fractures
  7. Your Free Compensation Estimate For Rib Fracture Injuries
  8. No Win No Fee Claims Services
  9. High-Quality Personal Injury Lawyers For Your Rib Fracture Claim
  10. Talk To Us
  11. More Information

A Guide To Calculate Compensation Claims For Rib Fractures

To understand how to file a claim and how much you are entitled to, first you have to recognise a rib fracture and the factors that could cause it.

Next, we discuss some potential impacts of a broken rib, from physical and psychological damage to financial loss. We then break-down brackets of compensation than can be demanded, providing some common examples of injury-related expenses. We’ve also included an example case study of ‘Miss McCarthy’ to illustrate, created using our experience handling and valuing claims.

At any point in this article, if you’d like more information, please speak to one of our specialist advisors today and see how our panel of personal injury lawyers could help you.

What Is A Rib Fracture?

A fractured rib, also known as a broken rib, has symptoms including pain, swelling, and tenderness of the area. Often left to recover naturally, these injuries typically take 3 to 6 weeks to heal depending on severity. 

If you’ve sustained a broken rib as a result of third-party negligence, you could be entitled to compensation. To establish grounds for negligence, the accident must meet the following criteria:

  1. Did the third-party owe you a duty of care?
  2. Was the third-party in breach of this duty?
  3. Were you injured as a result of this breach?

In order to make a broken rib claim, the third-party responsible for your injury must have been in breach of a duty of care to keep you safe and free from the risk of harm. Some bodies commonly owing a duty of care include:

  • Employers
    • Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, your employer could be held liable for your broken rib if their negligence caused it. A 2019 report by the Health and Safety Executive found that slips, trips, and falls accounted for a third of all major workplace injuries, with over 95% resulting in broken bones.
      • If you broke a rib in an accident at work, such as slipping on a spillage that was ignored by management, you could be entitled to claim for a broken rib. 
  • Those in control of public places
    • Under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, those in control of public places are subject to public liability regulations. Therefore, if you’re injured in a public place and third-party negligence was responsible, they could be held liable for breaching their duty of care.
      • If you tripped in a pothole of more than 40mm in-depth, while jogging along a park footpath and sustained a rib fracture, you could be entitled to claim against the council responsible for maintenance. 
  • Road users
    • A road traffic accident (RTA) can be defined as a collision involving a vehicle or another road user. Between 2018 and 2019, RTAs were responsible for over 157,630 casualties.
      • If you sustained a rib fracture in a collision caused by a careless driver, they could be held liable for breaching the Highway Code.

Can I Experience Financial Losses From A Rib Fracture?

If you’ve sustained a fractured rib, it’s likely that you will experience financial shortfall as a result. You may be suffering financial impacts from unpaid sick leave or found yourself having to pay out of pocket for injury-related costs. 

However, did you know that you could recover these costs as part of your personal injury claim?

With the aim of restoring you to the financial position you were in prior to sustaining your broken rib, as well as accounting for any potential future losses, you can recover expenses from medical fees to care costs through special damages.

You Could Be Eligible For A Care Claim

After sustaining a rib fracture, it’s common to experience some level of incapacity. If you require assistance as a result of your injury, you can recover care costs as special damages. 

Whether you receive gracious care from family and friends or professional assistance, care can be compensated regardless of whether any expense was incurred for it. To calculate the value of gracious care, the hourly rate of a local professional is taken and reduced on the basis that the service isn’t commercial. On the other hand, compensation for professional care is valued according to any invoices raised, so we advise you to retain a paper trail to avoid losing out on any compensation. 

You could also claim for any usual care that your injury prevented you from providing. For example, if you normally provide day-to-day assistance to a vulnerable relative but were unable to do so for injury-related reasons, you could claim for the cost of a carer in your place.

Ways Solicitors Calculate Broken Rib Compensation Amounts

If you choose to seek legal help, your personal injury lawyer will ask you to undergo a medical assessment with an independent expert. 

At your appointment, you can expect to be physically examined and asked about your accident. The prognosis will determine the impact that your injury has had on you, and will be used to help value your case. 

The resulting report will also help evidence your case by attempting to corroborate details of how you sustained your injury with the story you provided in your claim. Therefore, please ensure that you attend.

General Damages

In personal injury claims, there are two heads of damage; general and special damages. General damages cover physical and psychological harm, considering the severity of your injury and the extent of your recovery.  For example, general damages could account for the pain of your rib fracture and the subsequent treatment you had to endure, as well as the impact the injury had on your enjoyment of life.

Special Damages

In addition, special damages can be claimed to account for injury-related costs that the victim may have incurred. The aim is to restore the claimant to the financial standing they had prior to their injury. It can also account for any impact on future earnings, such as if you’re unable to return to work. Some examples of costs commonly recovered through special damages include:

  • Expenses
    • Prescription fees, travel costs to medical appointments, and care payments
  • Loss of earnings
    • Financial shortfall from unpaid sick leave and predicted loss of future income

£25,000 Case Study: Compensation Payouts For Rib Fractures

Miss McCarthy was a dancer making her way to board the cruise she would be working on for the summer. However, when her taxi driver made a dangerous manoeuvre, Miss McCarthy sustained a fractured rib in the collision with another car. The broken bone created a puncture wound in Miss McCarthy’s chest, requiring urgent surgery.

As a result of her injury and subsequent surgery, Miss McCarthy was unable to keep up her work commitments and entered into a recovery period lasting around 6 weeks. During this time, Miss McCarthy received gracious care from family and friends, providing her with day-to-day assistance while she was incapacitated. 

To give her case the best chances of success, Miss McCarthy hired a personal injury lawyer to handle her case. As Miss McCarthy’s friend whom she was travelling with at the time wasn’t injured in the accident, she photographed the scene and collected witnesses’ contact details, in addition to those of the taxi driver. This gave Miss McCarthy and her solicitor a solid foundation of evidence to build their case.

The insurance company of the driver of Miss McCarthy’s taxi admitted liability and agreed to settle.

In her settlement, Miss McCarthy was awarded £16,750 in general damages. This figure considered the pain of her rib fracture, the surgery she had to endure and the extent of her recovery period. In addition, Miss McCarthy was awarded around £8,250 in special damages, bringing her total payout to a sum of £25,000.

Type of Special Damages:
Includes:
How Much?
Travel Expenses
To and from appointments/treatment
As the pain medication that Miss McCarthy was on caused drowsiness, she was unable to drive. Therefore, she was awarded £185 for travel expenses.
Medications/Prescriptions
Prescriptions, treatment, physiotherapy, walking aids, etc.
Miss McCarthy recovered £200 for prescription painkillers.
Additional Care
Professional care at home, from family, childcare, etc.
As Miss McCarthy’s injury left her incapacitated, she was awarded £1,765 for the cost of a carer to cover the assistance she received from family and friends.
Lost Earnings
Loss of Earnings
Miss McCarthy’s injury left her unable to make her summer job on the cruise ship she had agreed to work on. For this loss of earnings, she was awarded £5,950.
Domestic Tasks
Cleaning, gardening; areas that requires consistent attention
As Miss McCarthy was unable to complete usual domestic tasks, she was awarded £150 for the cost of a cleaner over her recovery period.

The case of Miss McCarthy is purely an example. It is based on our past experiences of handling and valuing claims and serves to illustrate how accidents can happen and how they are valued.

Your Free Compensation Estimate For Rib Fractures Injuries

If you’re wondering how much compensation you could receive in a claim for a broken rib, we advise against using an online tool referred to as personal injury ‘compensation calculators’, as the estimates they provide can be inaccurate. 

To receive a consultation that you can trust, please contact one of our advisors today and see how our panel of personal injury lawyers could help you win the compensation settlement you deserve. Once they know the specifics of your case, they can advise you far better than any online tool can.

No Win No Fee Claims Services

If you’ve sustained a broken rib in an accident that wasn’t your fault, the financial risk associated with making a claim may be putting you off pursuing compensation.

However, with a No Win No Fee agreement, you don’t pay your solicitors’ fees unless they win your case, and there aren’t any hidden fees to worry about either.

If your No Win No Fee solicitor wins your case, a small ‘success fee’ will be deducted from your compensation. However, don’t worry about losing your payout, as this is capped by law so you can receive the compensation you deserve.

If you’re looking for legal help, our panel of personal injury lawyers always works on a No Win No Fee basis. This means you can focus on recovery while we take care of the process for you. Please contact one of our advisors today to learn more.

High-Quality Personal Injury Lawyers For Your Rib Fracture Claim

In our experience, we know how complex the legal system can be, particularly without help from a professional. Therefore, if you’re looking to claim for a broken rib, we advise you to seek help from a personal injury lawyer to ease the process and ensure you don’t lose out on the compensation you deserve.

Rather than looking for a law firm on your local high street, consider whether you could get better service elsewhere. Did you know that legal services can function virtually, meaning clients can connect with solicitors regardless of their location? Therefore, could you be restricting your chances of success by confining your search to the local area?

To help narrow your search, we recommend using online reviews. Offering first-hand experiences from past clients, online reviews allow you to see which service is best for you based on recommendations.

With clients nationwide, our panel of personal injury lawyers can provide you with regular updates via email, telephone and even face-to-face meetings, no matter your location. For more information on our services, please speak to one of our advisors today and see how we could help you claim.

Talk To Us

With years of experience handling and valuing claims, our panel of personal injury lawyers could help you make a successful claim for a broken rib. 

Please get in touch with one of our friendly advisors today to learn more:

  • 0800 408 7826
  • Write to us with your query by clicking here.
  • Use our live chat feature on the bottom right of your screen

More Information

We also have some other guides that you may find useful:

Guide by MA

Edited by BI