Have you suffered an avulsion fracture due to someone else’s negligence? If so, you may be eligible for compensation. Compensation can help you get back on your feet after an injury that’s affected your life in a variety of ways.

An avulsion fracture is slightly different to the average bone fracture. It happens when a small piece of bone tears away from the main segment of bone where a tendon or ligament is attached.

This guide will answer a variety of questions, such as:

• How long does it take to recover from an avulsion fracture?
• Can you walk on an avulsion fracture?
• Is an avulsion fracture bad?

Get In Touch With Our Team

Our friendly advisers are available 24 hours a day to answer any questions you may have and offer as much help as they can. They’re happy to offer free legal advice and assess how much compensation you may be owed.

If you have a solid claim, an adviser could connect you with our panel of personal injury solicitors. They can then discuss No Win No Fee agreements with you before commencing with your personal injury claim.

You can get in touch with our advisers by:

• Ringing them on 020 3870 4868 to discuss your case.
• Putting your information into our online claims form to receive a response at your earliest convenience.
• Having a chat with an adviser via our live chat pop-up box for a reply straight away.

Services And Information

1. Everything You Need To Know About Avulsion Fracture Claims
2. What Is An Avulsion Fracture?
3. Avulsion Fracture Symptoms
4. Common Types Of Avulsion Fracture
5. What Causes Avulsion Fractures?
6. Diagnosis And Treatment
7. Avulsion Fracture Compensation Calculator
8. Clinical Negligence In Treating Avulsion Fractures
9. Time Limits To Claim For Avulsion Fractures
10. I Suffered An Avulsion Fracture, What Should I Do?
11. Claim For An Avulsion Fracture On A No Win No Fee Basis
12. Useful Resources
13. FAQs

Everything You Need To Know About Avulsion Fracture Claims

To begin, this guide will look at what an avulsion fracture is and what symptoms may present themselves. There will then be sections showing the common types and causes of avulsion fractures. Next, the article will explore how this type of fracture is treated and diagnosed.

Additionally, there’ll be a compensation table to show how much compensation some injuries may carry. There will also be a section talking about how to make a clinical negligence claim for an avulsion fracture.

Moreover, the guide will discuss the personal injury claims time limit to make sure you’re aware of how long you could have left to make a claim. After this, there’ll be some advice on what steps you can take after suffering a broken bone.

Towards the end of the guide, there’ll be an exploration of No Win No Fee agreements and the benefits involved. There will then be some further guides to offer you as much information as possible about this topic. To finalise, there’ll be answers to some frequently answered questions.

What Is An Avulsion Fracture?

An avulsion fracture is when a small segment of bone joined to a ligament or tendon breaks off the bigger segment of bone. If you think you have a fracture, you should seek medical attention to ensure you receive the right treatment to help it heal correctly.

Although avulsion fracture statistics aren’t readily available to us, there are workplace injury statistics from RIDDOR. The table below includes some of these statistics, showing the number of non-fatal injuries to employees in Great Britain by nature of injury in 2014/15-2019/20.

As you can see, the most common injury was fractures with 18,535 cases. What’s more, these are just the reported work injuries. Fractures can also result from road traffic accidents or accidents in a public place.

Avulsion Fracture Symptoms

Although on its own an avulsion fracture might not be a severe medical emergency, it can produce some unpleasant symptoms.

They commonly occur in the hip, elbow and ankle. Avulsion foot fracture symptoms include:

• Sudden pain
• Difficulty moving the joint
• Swelling
• Bruising

The NHS advises that avulsion fractures are treated like soft tissue injuries. Healing can
take around 6 weeks, but swelling and pain can continue for up to 6 months.

The NHS says you may walk on the affected foot, but it may be easier with crutches. It’s apparently also common for the swelling to be worse at the end of the day. The NHS recommends you keep your foot elevated, especially at the beginning of your recovery period.

It’s likely to be painful when you walk on it so it’s recommended you rest whilst your ankle heals. You can also place ice packs on the injured area to decrease swelling and bruising.

We always advise that you seek medical advice if you suspect you’re suffering from a fracture.

If you’ve suffered a fracture due to someone breaching their duty of care to you, you may be eligible to make a personal injury claim. You can get in touch with our friendly advisers to chat about your situation and assess how strong your case is.

Common Types Of Avulsion Fracture

The elbow, ankles, and hips are the most common areas where an avulsion fracture may occur.

Another place for an avulsion fracture to occur is the top of the 5th metatarsal, which is the long bone that’s attached to the small toe. Avulsion fractures also occur in the navicular bone in the mid-region of the foot, as well as the ischial tuberosity where the hamstring tendon is located by the hip joint.

If you’ve suffered a fracture due to somebody breaching their duty of care, our advisers are here to help. They can talk through your situation with you and offer free legal advice. If you have a strong claim, they can connect you with our panel of personal injury lawyers to begin working on your personal injury claim.

What Causes Avulsion Fractures?

Avulsion fractures are different to ordinary fractures. This is because it occurs when a small segment of the bone departs from the main part of the bone. This usually occurs next to where the ligament or tendon attaches to the bone.

An avulsion fracture can happen when the tendon is suddenly pulled in the opposite direction of the bone. This type of fracture can be caused by a direct impact, such as a tackle during football. Alternatively, it can occur due to indirect force, such as a sudden ankle turn during sports.

You could suffer a fracture due to someone else’s negligence. For example:

• You fall down the stairs in a retail centre because the handrail was broken and, through the controller of the place was aware of this, they hadn’t fixed it.
• You advise your employer that a ladder’s faulty, but they tell you to use it anyway. A rung falls away as you climb and, consequently, you fall.
• You’re a cyclist and are hit by a car in a road traffic accident that you didn’t cause.

If you’ve suffered an avulsion fracture due to someone else’s negligence, you may be able to make a personal injury claim. You can contact our advisers today for free legal advice about your situation. If you have a valid claim, they can connect you with our expert panel of personal injury solicitors to discuss No Win No Fee agreements with you.

Diagnosis And Treatment

If you suspect you may be suffering an avulsion fracture, you should seek medical attention straight away. This ensures you receive the correct diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible.

The medical professional will likely perform a physical examination on you. They may touch the injured area to see if the bone feels or looks out of place and to check your pain levels. They may also look to see if there’s swelling, inflammation, or bruising of the area.

Next, they may refer you for an X-ray to check if the bone is out of place. If the X-ray image is unclear, as avulsion fractures only show a small fragment of bone missing, they may perform a CT scan. This will produce a clearer image and will allow the doctor to diagnose you.

After the diagnosis, your doctor will discuss your treatment plan with you. Avulsion fractures may require a splint to ensure the bone doesn’t move more out of place. A splint allows you to move the joint slightly, rather than a cast which is more rigid.

Your doctor may suggest you rest the injured area and use ice packs to decrease the swelling and bruising.

If you’d like to make a personal injury claim for an avulsion fracture due to someone breaching their duty of care to you, you can get in touch with our advisers to discuss this further.

Avulsion Fracture Compensation Calculator 

Instead of using a personal injury claims calculator, we’ve decided to provide you with a compensation table. The table below includes the latest figures taken from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). These guidelines are used by legal professionals to help them value injuries.

The figures in the compensation table below show how much compensation some injuries could be awarded. We’ve taken them from the JCG. This table is purely an example and the figures may not be the exact same for each individual case.

Edit

Injury:	Severity:	Notes:	Compensation:
Ankle Injuries	Moderate	Fractures and ligamentous tears that result in less severe disabilities, such as issues walking on ground that’s uneven.	£12,900 to £24,950
Ankle Injuries	Modest Injuries	Less serious, undisplaced or minor fractures, sprains, and ligamentous injuries.	Up to £12,900
Wrist Injuries	(a) Complete loss of function	A wrist injury that causes a loss of wrist function.	£44,690 to £56,180
Wrist Injuries	(b) Permanent disability	An injury that results in a permanent disability, but the wrist can still be moved.	£22,990 to £36,770
Injuries to the Pelvis and Hips	Moderate (i)	Significant injury to the hip or pelvis but no major permanent disability.	£24,950 to £36,770
Injuries to the Pelvis and Hips	Lesser Injuries (i)	Despite serious injury, there’s little to no residual disability.	£3,710 to £11,820

Compensation awards are possible for general damages and special damages. General damages award compensation for the ways the injury has impacted you physically and mentally. Special damages compensate for the financial issues the injury has caused you.

General damages could be awarded for physical damage, such as the fracture itself, and mental harm, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The awarded bracket depends on factors such as how serious the injury is and how lengthy the treatment is.

As part of the claims process, you would attend a medical assessment. An independent medical professional would look at your injuries and create a report. The purposes of this report are to:

1. Prove that your injuries were caused or worsened by the incident. (If they weren’t, you could find it difficult to claim.)
2. Assess the severity of your injuries.

If you use the services of a solicitor, they can use the report to help value your claim.

Calculating Special Damages

An example of financial issues that special damages could compensate for is loss of earnings due to taking time off work. You could also claim for:

• Medical expenses such as prescriptions
• Care costs (or time your family or friends spent caring for you)
• Travel costs to and from medical appointments due to your injuries

It would be harder to claim special damages if you lack evidence of your financial loss. An example of evidence you could provide for loss of earnings is payslips. Other documents to show financial losses include bills, receipts or invoices.

Clinical Negligence In Treating Avulsion Fractures

Some people may have suffered an avulsion fracture that wasn’t due to anyone else’s negligence or mistakes. However, if you received a misdiagnosis or the wrong treatment due to medical negligence, you may be able to make a clinical negligence compensation claim.

This could occur if an X-ray is performed but the doctor doesn’t notice the clear indications of the avulsion fracture, causing you to receive a misdiagnosis. If this happens and you suffer because of it, you could be eligible to make a medical negligence claim.

To receive free legal advice about medical negligence, you can contact our expert advisers to have a chat about your situation. They can assess how strong your claim is and how much compensation you may be eligible for.

Time Limits To Claim For Avulsion Fractures

The general personal injury claims time limit is three years. This means you have three years to make a claim starting from the date the accident occurred. Alternatively, the three years may only commence from the date you discover the injury was caused or worsened due to someone else’s negligence if this is later.

However, there are some exceptions to this. For example, if you’re under 18, the three-year time limit begins on your 18th birthday. On the other hand, a certain adult you trust can become a litigation friend to make the claim on your behalf before then, if you’d rather pursue the claim sooner.

Similarly, if you don’t have the mental capacity to claim, the three-year time limit begins when your recovery commences. Alternatively, until that happens, a friend or family member can act as a litigation friend for you. Not everyone is able to sue on behalf of someone else, but those who can include solicitors and parents.

If you’d like to see if you can begin the personal injury claims process, you can contact our advisers to have a chat about your situation. If your claim is legitimate, an adviser can connect you with an experienced personal injury lawyer from our panel to get started on your claim.

I Suffered An Avulsion Fracture, What Should I Do?

If you believe you’ve suffered an avulsion fracture, the first thing you’re recommended to do is seek medical attention. It’s important to receive the correct diagnosis as soon as you can so that your fracture can heal properly and doesn’t worsen.

Furthermore, you can use your medical records as evidence if you decide to make a personal injury claim. You should also gather as much further evidence as possible about your injury. For example, you can provide CCTV footage of the accident or get witness contact details to prove that the accident occurred due to someone else’s negligence.

Additionally, you should provide as much evidence of your financial losses caused by the injuries as you can. For example, you could provide bus tickets to show that you spent money to travel to and from medical appointments. You could also provide bank statements to show that you spent your own money on prescription medication.

Next, it’s recommended you work with a personal injury lawyer to help your claim succeed. Our panel of personal injury solicitors are knowledgeable and experienced in helping people get more money from an injury claim. They can also help you through your recovery by showing empathy and handling the difficult parts of the claims process.

Our experienced advisers would be happy to have a chat with you about your situation and assess how much compensation you may be owed. You’re not obligated to continue with our services after chatting with an adviser. However, if you’d like, you can be connected to our panel of personal injury solicitors if your claim is valid.

Claim For An Avulsion Fracture On A No Win No Fee Basis 

A No Win No Fee agreement, or Conditional Fee Agreement, has various benefits. A No Win No Fee agreement is a contractual agreement between you and your solicitor stating what your solicitor should do during the personal injury claim in order to receive their fees.

If your claim fails, you won’t be obligated to pay any of your solicitor’s fees. If your claim is successful, your lawyer will deduct a small, legally capped percentage of the compensation. This is to reimburse them for their hard work.

Our panel of personal injury solicitors would be happy to discuss working with you on a No Win No Fee basis. You can contact our advisers for a free assessment of how much compensation you may be owed. If your claim is valid and favourable, an adviser can connect you with our panel of personal injury lawyers to discuss No Win No Fee agreements with you.

To get in touch with our advisers, you can:

• Ring them on 020 3870 4868 to receive free legal advice over the phone.
• Chat with an adviser via our live chat pop-up box to receive a reply instantly.
• Fill in our online claims form to receive a response whenever you’re next available.

Our advisers are available 24/7 and give free legal advice. What’s more, you won’t be under any obligation to proceed with the services of our panel of lawyers.

Useful Resources

These useful sources might be helpful to you when deciding on whether to claim or not.

What Are My Rights After An Accident At Work In The UK? – Have you suffered an injury due to an accident at work caused by your employer’s negligence? Our guide explores what rights you have.

A Guide To Car Accident Claims – If you’ve suffered an injury in a car accident that wasn’t your fault, our article explains how you could make a personal injury compensation claim.

When And How To Report A Car Accident – Are you wondering when and how you can report a car accident? Our article includes the information you should know.

The below guides are from external NHS sources for more facts on fractures.

Broken Ankle – This NHS guide includes the symptoms, treatment, and recovery process of an ankle fracture.

Broken Arm or Wrist – You can find helpful information about wrist and arm fractures in this NHS guide.

How do I know if I’ve broken a bone? – If you suspect you may have suffered a broken bone, this NHS article includes vital information you need to know.

FAQs

Here we answer some questions that are commonly asked. If you need anything else regarding personal injury claims, why not get in touch with our advisers?

Can you walk on an avulsion fracture ankle?

According to the NHS, for a fibula avulsion fracture, as long as it’s not too painful, you can usually walk on your foot. You should ask your doctor about this to ensure they approve this is safe for you.

Can I drive with an avulsion fracture?

If you’re unsure as to what you can and can’t do when you have a fracture, you should ask your doctor.

How long does it take to recover from an avulsion fracture?

An avulsion fracture can take around 6 weeks to recover. If your symptoms get worse over time, you should revisit your doctor to check if the bone is healing properly.

Thank you for reading our guide about making a personal injury claim for an avulsion fracture that wasn’t your fault.

Writer HL

Checked by HT