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Ankle Injury Compensation – When You Can Claim & How Much

By Ian Morris | Updated December 12th, 2022

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The ankle is a complex joint that plays a vital part in allowing us to maintain mobility, independence and live life to the full. Unsurprisingly, ankle injuries are common and form many of the claims we at Direct2Compensation assist with. Most such claims arise as a result of a fall, trip or slip, and also road traffic accidents.

If have injured your ankle as a result of a slipping accident on a wet floor surface, rolled your ankle on a broken pavement, or fallen whilst at work, there is a good possibility you can make a claim for compensation.

When can you claim compensation for an ankle injury?

Anyone who suffers an ankle injury as the result of the negligent actions of someone else, a business or organisation, could seek to pursue a claim for compensation. To succeed, the injured person must be able to identify a hazard or act of negligence that has caused their ankle injury.

Slipping Accidents

If you have sustained an ankle injury as a result of a slipping accident, a claim will succeed if it can be demonstrated that the area which caused you to slip was not marked with a hazard warning sign. The hazard must have been in situ for a sufficient period of time that the business or organisation responsible for the area should have erected a warning sign and removed the hazard.

Tripping Accidents

Ankle injury claims often arise as a result of a tripping accident in a public place. If you have injured your ankle as a result of a uneven pavement surface, a broken kerb or step, you could succeed with a claim if it can be demonstrated that the landowner or local authority responsible for maintenance has failed to carry out adequate routine inspections and acted on repairing any dangerous hazards found.

As a general rule of thumb, to succeed with a claim for ankle injury compensation as a result of a tripping accident, it must be shown that the defect that caused the ankle injury is 25mm or more in height/depth and that the landowner failed to identify and repair the defect in a reasonable time.

Ankle injuries at work

A work accident claim will succeed if you sustain an ankle injury that can be directly linked to a lack of training or employer negligence. For example, slipping on a wet floor at work where there is no hazard warning sign, or a fall from height at work due to the provision of the wrong ladder or a lack of access platforms.

Road Traffic accidents

If your ankle injury was caused in a road traffic accident that was not your fault, whether you were a driver, passenger, pedestrian or cyclist, you can seek to claim ankle injury compensation from the insurers of the person responsible for the accident.

At Direct2Compensation we can assist you whether the negligent party was insured or not.

Different types of ankle injury

Common types of ankle injuries at the heart of a successful claim include:

Fractures
Dislocations
Soft tissue injuries including ligament tears and sprains
Severe bruising
Lacerations

The most common injury that leads to a claim for ankle injury compensation is one of a soft tissue nature involving ligament damage. Such injuries can be more serious than a simple fracture and can lead to a long recovery period.

Any person who suffers a soft tissue ligament injury to the ankle, and has symptoms that last for 2 weeks or more, can seek to make a claim. Most soft tissue injuries take up to 6-8 weeks to recover, but in cases where surgical intervention is required, recovery periods will be far longer.

Check out the NHS website for information on how to ease your ankle pain.

Compensation amounts for ankle injuries

The value of a compensation settlement for an ankle injury will vary depending on its severity. The amounts below are for the injury itself, but you can also claim for special damages which would include your expenses, lost income and rehabilitation therapies, for example.

The rarest and most severe injuries may involve fractures and soft tissue damage resulting in deformity, and potentially amputation. Such cases may reach settlement values in excess of £50,000.

Severe injuries that leave a person with significant disability and reduction in mobility, necessitate an extensive period of treatment in plaster and/or where pins and plates have been inserted, can usually expect compensation of between £20,000 and £40,000.

Moderate ankle injuries would include fractures and ligament tears that give rise to occasional difficulties in walking or standing. Here the value of a settlement would fall around £10,000 to £20,000.

Minor ankle injuries see values of up to about £10,000 depending on whether a complete recovery has been made.

The following table displays The Judicial College’s guidelines on compensation amounts for ankle injuries of different severity.

Severity of injury	Compensation amount
Very severe with future risk of lower leg amputation and permanent consequences	£47k - £65k
Severe, requiring lengthy treatment and significant residual disability	£29k - £47k
Moderate, e.g fractures, ligament tears, with ongoing discomfort in certain activities	£13k - £25k
Modest, with varying levels of recovery	Up to £13k

Once your specialist solicitor has obtained your medical report they will be able to give you an idea of how much compensation to expect for your injury.

How to report or record the details of your accident

As with any claim for compensation, a claimant will need supporting evidence to demonstrate that their ankle injury was caused by someone else’s negligence. Alongside important evidence such as medical reports, having the details of the accident properly reported and recorded will give your specialist solicitor the best chance of succeeding with a claim.

In most cases, anyone who suffers an ankle injury should make sure that the details of their ankle injury are recorded within the accident book of the business or organisation responsible for the accident site.

Commonly, in a supermarket or shop, the accident book will be held within the store and you should report your injury to a member of staff.

When out in public, it is most likely that the responsible landowner will be a local authority. In such cases, you should contact your local highways department responsible for the maintenance of the footpath (or area where you injured your ankle) and advise them of what happened and where.

In any record of an ankle injury it is important that the cause of the ankle injury is noted – such as slipping on a spillage with no hazard warning sign, or due to a large pothole or broken curb.

If you are unsure as to how to report the details of your ankle injury to the right people, contact us for help.

How Direct2Compensation can help you

At Direct2Compensation, our expertly trained and knowledgeable staff can easily identify whether or not the cause of your ankle injury will enable you to make a claim for compensation. We speak in simple terms so that you will understand your rights and how our No Win No Fee claims service can benefit you.

We’ll advise you as to how to report your ankle injury properly, what photographs you may need of the accident site, and link you with some of the best ankle injury compensation solicitors available.

Our specialist solicitors will seek to maximise any settlement for you, with expert medical reports obtained to support your claim, and we’ll also make sure that any lost income and costs incurred are fully recovered in your special damages claim.

We have a genuine expertise in ankle injury compensation claims and invite you to start your claim online today, or call us on 01225 430285.

62 questions have been answered on this subject - ask us your question

Comments & Questions

Read on for questions and advice about claiming, plus ankle injury claim examples...

i rent an annexe which is newly constructed. building control specified non slip decking. i slipped and am currently in hospital with a very badly broken ankle. do i have a claim against anyone?

There is a possible claim for compensation against either the builder or most likely, the owner who instructed the builder of the annexe here. The scenario you describe is unusual, but if it can be shown that they have failed to build/construct the decking correctly and in accordance with building regulations requirements, then a claim could possibly succeed.

We would be happy to take some further information and present your enquiry to our specialist slipping accident solicitors in order that they can consider the merits of your claim in more detail. My initial view is that they would wish to proceed.

In the meantime, I would advise that you get someone to take some photographs of the decking as it is and then formally complain to the building owner regarding your accident – making mention of the failure to adhere to regulation instructions and also make a report of the matter to your local Building Regulations officer at the relevant planning authority.

I work for a Floristry & events company. The health and safety is non existent – I am subjected to passive smoking and expected to work in a storage barn which is extremely dusty/dirty and has broken glass on the floor. Last Christmas I fell down some steps whilst out on site at a hotel. I was taking down an eight foot Christmas tree on my own. I was carrying a very large box of decorations down some stone steps when I fell. I cut both my knees and badly hurt my ankle. I went to the GP the next day who sent me for an X-ray. My ankle was not broken but I’d torn tendons and ligaments. I was in work the next day and despite asking for light duties I was expected to stand up to work all day. Ten months on I still suffer with my ankle. I can’t take part in aerobics classes like I used to. I have never been given any health and safety training. The accident was never recorded. Can I claim against my employer for this?

From your description of the nature of the workplace, it would appear that they show little regard for the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act or their statutory duties. As such, employer negligence should attach. However, you mention that the accident was never recorded, so this could undermine your claim somewhat. Do you have any witnesses who could assist you in corroborating your claim?

I had an accident at work. The cleaner and myself collided in a warehouse of the supermarket I work in. It resulted in my foot and ankle getting jammed between a pallet truck and the wall. A month later after working through the pain (we are not allowed sick days) I went to doctors and they put me on sick for week. I did not get payed not even ssp. 1 year later and they are still punishing me for my accident.
Do I have a claim?
I am in ongoing physio for my foot. As I didn’t get to go to to doctors straight away they are not 100% sure what I did to it but they have said I tore my ligaments.

Was an accident book entry made regarding the incident? We would like to speak to you further about this – could you call us on 01225430285?

After falling on a wet floor with no warning sign at the start of my shift in the job, I have only been in for 13 weeks and have sprained my ankle. I was told that the injury to my ankle could take up to 4 weeks to recover. Do I have a claim and could I lose my job if I made a claim? Thank you.

You can certainly make a claim for slipping accident compensation here. Given that the floor was wet, with no hazard warning sign on display there is a case for your employer to answer regarding this.

By law you cannot lose your job for exercising a legal right to make a claim for compensation for your injuries and loss of income.

Hi, I was injured outside of the workplace. I have done ligament damage in my ankle… some of the duties at work require heavy lifting and my employer is trying to get me to do these tasks even after supplying a doctor’s note with the injury. We have no ppe supplied or had any training in safe lifting etc. I was told an 8 week healing process and it’s only been a week. What rights do I have?

If you have a Doctors note advising that you are not fit to perform some of the requirements of your role, your employer can do two things. Either provide light duties to you during your recovery or insist that you remain absent from work until you are fit. They cannot demand that you worsen or risk the worsening of your injuries by making you ignore the advice of your GP.
The lack of PPE provision by your employer is likely to be employer negligence and if this was the cause of your ankle injury you could seek to make a claim against the employer for the injuries you have sustained.

If you would like to discuss your injury and cause with us, we can advise you as to whether or not you have a valid claim for compensation.

I’m enquiring about what to do or who to hold responsible if an accident happened at someone business premises who is liable. If an ankle is broken while carrying out contracted work by a big company and they sub contracted to do the insulation work and the accident happens at the premises of the contract work for the company, who do I hold liable for the claim – the subcontractor or the owner of the business who I was carrying the work at? And what is the procedure for claiming, thank you.

It is important that the details of the accident and the cause of any injury are appropriately reported and recorded. To this end, it would be wise to make sure that the main contractor and sub-contractor have recorded the incident.

The liability for any possible claim for compensation will rest with whoever was negligent. As a claimant, you do not need to be concerned about this as a specialist Solicitor will ensure that the liability attaches to the correct persons.

On the 19/09/2017 I was injured on duty on my right ankle, and today the Doctor said it’s a permanent injury because my ankle is is still a bit swollen, but I can walk. I reported the matter to my company and they sent me to hospital and received treatment, they put me a hard cast, after three weeks they removed it and they put on a soft cast so I was able to walk again. But the whole process took four months and I can still feel pain at times, what should I do? If I claim how much can I get?

We cannot accurately state how much compensation you will receive at this stage as we do not know the full extent of your medical treatment or how much of a recovery you will eventually make from your injuries. In any claim after an accident at work, a Solicitor will reach the value that the claim ought to settle for on the basis of medical evidence. They will also ensure that your loss of income and costs incurred as a result of your time off work after the accident are recovered in a special damages claim.

Fell on snow and ice in an industrial estate, I’m aware area was not gritted. I have broken ankle and had to have surgery to pin the ankle, I am still in hospital this is Day 3, came in via ambulance.

It is not always possible to succeed with a claim for compensation when injuries are sustained after a slip on snow or ice. However, it is possible in some circumstances to attach liability against the landowners who have failed to grit or salt the areas that they own or manage.

In your case, as you have slipped on an industrial estate there is a possibility that it will be possible to attach liability to an individual business or the management company responsible for the site in question and we are certainly keen to investigate your claim further.

It is important to ensure that the details of your accident are on record with the relevant people. In your case, you should contact the individual business where you fell – if relevant – or the organisation responsible for the management of the site and make a full record of your fall, where it happened, the lack of signs, salt or grit and of course, your injuries.

We look forward to helping you.

We were entering the restaurant when my wife turned her ankle on the flooring between the front entrance door and the second door in to the restaurant. The matting/floor covering contains an indentation of a heart and it was whilst walking here she turned her ankle. We have met someone else in A and E this evening who had also experienced a similar issue but with the fracture.

I am sorry to hear about your wife’s accident. I would like to find out more about the accident so that we can properly advise you as to possible courses of action. Please contact us to discuss the accident in detail.

We look forward to hearing from you.