Facial & sensory injury compensation

Facial & sensory injury compensation

These personal injuries include facial fractures, dental damage, scarring, impaired sight/hearing or hair loss. This guide shows the range of compensation.

At the top end of the facial and sensory injury compensation scale are the cases of total loss of sight or hearing, worth around £220,000 general damages.

More common are injuries which lead to partial loss of sight or impaired hearing. Examples include industrial deafness cases where prolonged exposure to noisy machinery at work causes hearing loss and/or tinnitus.

General Damages for Facial & Sensory Injuries

	Min	Max
Facial Injuries
Skeletal Injuries
Le Fort Fractures of Frontal Facial Bones	£13,500	£20,000
Multiple Fractures of Facial Bones	£8,000	£13,250
Fractures of Nose or Nasal Complex	£1,000	£12,750
Fractures of Cheekbones	£1,350	£8,750
Fracture of Jaws	£3,500	£25,000
Damage to Teeth	£600	£6,250
Facial Disfigurement
Females – Scarring	£1,000	£53,000
Males – Scarring	£1,000	£36,000
Injuries Affecting Sight
Total blindness and deafness (in the region of)	£220,000
Total blindness (in the region of)	£147,500
Loss of sight in one eye with reduced vision in the remaining eye	£35,000	£98,000
Total loss of one eye	£30,000	£36,000
Complete loss of sight in one eye	£30,000	£27,000
Serious but incomplete loss of vision in one eye	£13,000	£21,000
Minor but permanent impairment of vision in one eye	£6,750	£11,500
Minor Eye Injuries	£2,150	£4,750
Transient Eye Injuries	£1,250	£2,150
Deafness
Total Deafness and Loss of Speech	£60,000	£77,000
Total Deafness	£50,000	£60,000
Total Loss of Hearing in one Ear	£17,500	£25,000
Partial Hearing Loss/Tinnitus
Severe	£16,000	£25,000
Moderate	£8,000	£16,000
Mild with some hearing loss	£6,750	£8,000
Slight of occasional tinnitus with slight hearing loss	£4,000	£6,750
Damage to Hair	£2,150	£6,000

One recent case we dealt with involved a man who whilst carrying out repairs for an elderly relative in her boiler cupboard was exposed to a flammable material negligently left there by a workman. The material caused an explosion which damaged his hearing and he suffered from quite severe tinnitus.

He required prolonged treatment for the tinnitus (and post traumatic stress), both of which were funded by the Defendant;s insurers as the claim progressed, and the case settled for £60,000 damages.

Damages for fractures to facial bones range from £1000 for a broken nose (with full early recovery) to £20,000 or more for serious fractures to the jaw or frontal bones which require surgery and which leave longer term symptoms. Often facial bone fracture cases will involve other injuries, such as scarring, concussion or other head injury.

Facial scarring cases can be difficult to value and the range of awards is wide. A small well healed scar above the hair line will be of little or no cosmetic significance but the same scar on the bridge of the nose can be very obvious and will sometimes cause the accident victim serious anxiety. It is important to remember that the victim's subjective reaction is relevant.

The Defendant must take the Claimant as he finds him, which means that the Claimant who suffers a severe psychological reaction to an injury, perhaps because of a constitutional vulnerability, is entitled to compensation for the full extent of their injury, even if another person may have got over the effect of the same injury without any difficulty.

Facial scars are often amenable to scar revision plastic surgery, and the private cost of the procedure is usually claimable as an item of special damage.

Personal injury compensation is divided into two main categories, one for the injuries themselves (general damages) and a second for the financial losses caused by the injury (special damage). This second category includes compensation for loss of earnings, care, and medical expenses.

What you should do next?

To speak with us on a confidential basis about your personal injury contact us now by:

Filling in our online enquiry form or
Calling us on 020 7485 8811

You will be put through to a member of our personal injury team who will speak to you in more detail about all aspects of your claim and let you know what documents you may need to provide to move forward in your claim, should you decide to proceed.

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