By Daniel Pike. Last Updated 28th September 2022. Have you been in an accident caused by someone breaching their duty of care to you? Did you fracture your toe as a result? If so, our guide on claiming compensation for a broken toe could help. We’ll be looking at how you may be able to claim compensation for the pain and suffering you’ve suffered as the result of a third party’s negligence. 

How To Claim Compensation For A Broken Toe Injury

Our guide will look at the process of making a personal injury claim for an accident caused by someone else’s negligence. Whether you were injured at work, in public or on the road, we can explain the duty of care owed to you and the process of claiming compensation. We will also look at the claims process if medical negligence in the form of a missed diagnosis has resulted in you suffering more than you would have if you’d been diagnosed correctly. 

Additionally, we have a team of advisors on hand to provide free legal advice. They can assess whether your claim has a chance of succeeding. If it does, they can connect you with a personal injury solicitor from our panel who can offer representation on a No Win No Fee basis. 

Get In Touch With Our Team

Please don’t hesitate to contact a member of our team if you have any questions after reading this guide. They can provide you with further help and advice on any questions you may have regarding your claim. 

Contact us by:

• Calling us on 020 3870 4868
• Filling out our online form
• Chatting with us on live chat at the bottom of the page

Services And Information

1. Everything You Need To Know About Broken Toe Compensation Claims
2. What Is A Broken Toe Injury?
3. What Are The Parts Of The Toe Called?
4. How To Tell If You Have Broken A Toe
5. Broken Toe Bone Causes
6. Broken Toe Compensation Calculator
7. Can A Broken Toe Be Treated?
8. What Is A Misdiagnosed Break Or Fracture?
9. Why Are Broken Bones Misdiagnosed?
10. Limitation Periods On Broken Toe Injury Claims
11. What Do I Need To Do If I Broke A Toe?
12. Claim For A Broken Toe On A No Win No Fee Basis
13. Similar And Related Guides
14. Frequently Asked Questions

Everything You Need To Know About Broken Toe Compensation Claims

Numerous accidents could lead to you suffering either a broken big toe, broken little toe, or another toe break. It may be that you suffered a slip, trip or fall while in public. Or perhaps something fell on your foot at work. You may have been in a road traffic accident that resulted in a fractured toe.

The details of the accident are important in ascertaining whether a breach of duty of care has occurred. If someone acted negligently by failing to take steps to ensure your safety when they had a legal obligation to do so, then you may have a valid claim.

Our guide will take a look at different ways you could have broken your toe due to someone breaching their duty of care. We’ll also look at what a broken toe is, the treatment that could be available for this kind of injury.   

Additionally, we’ll look at the damages you could claim in compensation. We’ve also created an alternative to a personal injury claims calculator, which could provide an idea of how much your claim is worth. 

Furthermore, this article will guide you through how you can seek legal representation without paying upfront costs. We will do this by examining No Win No Fee agreements and the benefits they can offer. 

Don’t forget, if you have any questions, please get in touch on the number above. Otherwise, read on to find out more about a broken toe. 

What Is A Broken Toe Injury?

A broken toe can be very painful. It can be difficult to know whether your toe is broken or just bruised; however, the treatment is usually the same for both. You should seek medical attention if you’ve injured your toe, even if you’re unsure whether or not it is broken.

There are two main kinds of fractures; displaced and non-displaced. In a non-displaced fracture, the two ends of the bone are still in alignment and haven’t moved out of place. In a displaced fracture, the two ends of the bone are no longer in alignment. A displaced fracture can be more serious as it poses the risk of the broken end of the bone causing damage, such as severing arteries or causing damage to muscles.

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) recorded 835 non-fatal injuries to one or more toes in the workplace in 2019/20. The graph below highlights non-fatal injuries to the rest of the lower limb in the workplace in 2019/20, as recorded by RIDDOR. 

What happens if you leave a broken toe untreated?

If you leave a fractured toe untreated, it can lead to infection, especially if you have a cut or other wound. Additionally, you could also experience arthritis in the affected area as a result of leaving it untreated.

What Are The Parts Of The Toe Called?

The bones in the foot and toes work together to give you mobility and balance while walking and moving around. The bones that make up the foot and the toes are:

• Metatarsal– these sit between the middle of your foot and your toes, connecting the toes to the foot. If you suffer a metatarsal fracture, it could have resulted from a forceful impact directly to the middle of the foot. 
• Proximal Interphalangeal (PIP) joint and Metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint– these are joints in the toes that enable us to bend and curl our toes upwards and inwards. 
• Phalanges– these are three small bones that make up the toes themselves. They are the proximal phalanx, the middle phalanx and the distal phalanx.

In addition to a broken toe, you may also experience a broken bone in your foot as the toes are so closely connected to bones in the foot. This will be accounted for when you claim compensation for your pain and suffering. 

How To Tell If You Have Broken A Toe

If you’re wondering, ‘how do you tell if your toe is fractured or broken?’ or ‘should I go to the hospital for a broken toe?’ then this section could help. Here, we will look at the symptoms you may have experienced after a toe injury that could have resulted in a broken big toe, broken little toe or other broken toes.  

According to the NHS, your toe may be broken if you experience the following broken toe symptoms:

• Swelling
• Pain
• Bruising or redness 
• Difficulty walking on the affected foot

The NHS recommends seeking immediate medical advice if you have experienced any of the following in the affected area after a toe injury:

• A bad cut or any other wound
• Severe pain

You should also seek immediate medical advice if it’s your child who’s broken their toe.  Additionally, the NHS recommends visiting A&E if:

• You’ve injured or broken your big toe
• The affected toe is pointing at an odd angle
• Your bone is sticking out of your toe
• You’re experiencing numbness or tingling in your toes or foot

It’s important that you seek medical attention for your injury. As we have already mentioned, it can be difficult to know if your toe is broken or just bruised. But you should always seek medical attention, as leaving a broken toe to heal on its own can cause severe problems down the line.

Broken Toe Bone Causes

There are various ways a broken toe can occur. In some instances, the cause is one that no one could have prevented and was an unfortunate accident. However, it’s possible that your injury was caused by someone who owed you a duty of care acting negligently. 

For example, all road users owe a duty of care to one another to ensure the safety of others as much as possible. You’re expected to follow the guidance set out in the Highway Code. If you’re in an accident caused by another driver’s duty of care and are injured as a result, you could be eligible to claim. 

When you’re at work, your employer has a responsibility to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure your safety and wellbeing. This duty is outlined in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The person in control of a public space (known as the “occupier”) has a responsibility to ensure the safety of members of the public who use the space for the purpose intended. The occupier should be someone who could be expected to anticipate that an accident might occur. They should also have the power to prevent the accident from happening. If an occupier fails to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure the safety of visitors, this is a breach of the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957.

If they fail to do so, they could be at risk of breaching your duty of care and therefore be liable for the accident that caused your injury. See below for examples of how an employer, road user, occupier or medical professional could be liable for an accident.

How could someone be liable for my accident?

We have explored a range of ways someone could be liable for the accident that caused your injury. In these cases, you may be entitled to compensation for the pain and suffering you have experienced.

Examples of how someone could liable in a road traffic accident might include:

• A driver crashing into you from the side because they failed to look before emerging from a junction. This could cause your foot to get trapped from the inside of the car being crushed inwards.
• A pedestrian’s foot being run over by a car or motorbike when crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing.
• A cyclist being knocked off their bike after a driver didn’t check their mirrors properly when overtaking. 

Your employer could be liable for your injuries because of:

• Failing to provide safety shoes to employees working in factories who may be at a higher risk of foot injuries
• Machinery not being secured down properly and rolling over someone’s foot 
• Equipment not being stored away properly and falling from a height onto someone’s foot

Examples of how accidents in a public place could happen might include:

• Slipping on a spill in a supermarket that someone hadn’t cleaned up or made customers aware of by placing a wet floor sign down
• Failing to take safety precautions when carrying out building work on a public street and putting the public at risk of injuries 
• The council putting the public at risk of a slip, trip or fall by failing to maintain the pavements

If you’re still unsure whether someone else was liable for the accident that caused your injury, why not get in touch with our team? They can assess the strength of your claim and provide further details on how much you could receive. 

Broken Toe Compensation Calculator

When you make a personal injury claim for a broken toe, the compensation could be split into two parts. The first of these is called general damages. These cover the physical and psychological suffering your injury has caused you and the impact it’s had on your quality of life.  

Additionally, you may be able to claim special damages which cover your past and future financial losses. For instance, any loss of earnings, medical expenses or care costs incurred as a direct result of your injury. 

General damages will be valued with the help of the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), a document solicitors may use to value claims. In addition, you may be invited to attend an independent medical assessment as part of your claim. This will provide a report solicitors can use with the help of the JCG to value your claim.

If you have any, special damages will be worked out separately and added to the value of your claim for general damages. It’s really important that you provide evidence of any special damages you’ve incurred as, without proof, they will not be able to be included in your claim. 

Our compensation table provides guide figures, taken from the JCG, to give you an idea of how much compensation you could claim for various broken toe injuries. The figures should only be used as a guide as actual compensation figures may vary. 

Edit

Injury	Description	Award
Toe amputation	Amputation of all toes: The award given will depend on whether the amputation was surgical or traumatic and how the injury has affected mobility.	£36,520 to £56,080
Toe	Severe: This includes crush injuries, amputation of one or two toes except the big toe and other wounds causing severe damage to the affected toes.	£13,740 to £21,070
Toe	Moderate: This includes straightforward fractures and laceration injuries to one or more toes.	Up to £9,600
Foot	Moderate: This includes displaced metatarsal fractures which result in permanent deformity and ongoing symptoms of the injury.	£13,740 to £24,990
Foot	Modest: This award will be given to simple metatarsal fractures that may have continuing symptoms	Up to £13,740
Ankle	Very Severe: The award given will be for very severe ankle fractures such as a transmalleolar fracture causing damge to soft tissue and deformity.	£50,060 to £69,700
Ankle	Modest: This includes less serious, minor or undisplaced fractures as well as sprains and ligament injuries. The level of the award given will depend on whether a complete recovery is made as well as other factors.	Up to £13,740

If you have any questions regarding compensation, get in touch with our team on the number above. They’ll be happy to take some details from you and give you an estimated valuation of your claim. 

Can A Broken Toe Be Treated?

If you’re thinking ‘I’m not sure what to do for a broken toe’, you should always seek medical advice or attention if you feel your toe is broken. The NHS page on broken toes provides some insight into how injuries of this nature can be treated. 

Your doctor may strap your broken toe to one of your other toes to support it while it heals. Injuries of this nature usually heal within 4 to 6 weeks, but more

Surgery isn’t usually necessary. However, it may be required for more serious fractures or breaks. For example, if you have a comminuted fracture, which is where the bone has broken into three or more pieces, surgery may be required to ensure all the bones are fixed together as they heal. 

It’s important that you seek medical advice if you think you’ve broken your toe, as leaving it untreated may result in further complications. For example, you could contract an infection or develop arthritis from an untreated broken toe. 

Broken Metatarsal NHS Guidelines

If you have broken your metatarsal, NHS guidelines offer a few ways you can aid in your recovery. Here are a few examples:

• Pain relief – This could be in the form of prescription medication or over the counter painkillers.
• Cold packs – Frozen peas or ice packs can aid in the reduction of swelling. Never apply the ice directly to the skin. Instead, wrap it in a thin towel. Additionally, you shouldn’t use this method for longer than 20 minutes at a time in each hour.
• Rest – Elevating the injury can help reduce swelling. This can alleviate pain and help with healing too. As much as possible, keep the foot above hip level. Placing a cushion under your foot whilst lying down is a good way to achieve this.
• Smoking cessation – Smoking can prolong or even halt the healing process.

The above information has been taken from official NHS sources. However, we are not medical professionals. If you can’t tell if you’ve broken your toe or have any other issues, then get in touch with your doctor. This includes injuries other than metatarsal fractures, such as if you’ve fractured your big toe joint, for example.

What Is A Misdiagnosed Break Or Fracture?

It’s understandable to expect an accurate diagnosis from a medical professional. However, medical professionals can make mistakes resulting in further complications and avoidable pain. 

In order for you to claim for medical negligence, it’s not enough that your doctor missed your broken toe or misdiagnosed it as something else. You need to show that the care you received fell short of the standard expected of their profession. You also need to show that their misdiagnosis caused you to suffer more than you would have if the injury had been properly diagnosed. If you feel you’ve received substandard medical care, you can report your doctor for medical negligence.

In order to prove whether or not a doctor was negligent, the court will usually administer something called the Bolam Test. Here, a panel of the doctor’s peers will be asked whether they would have acted the same when presented with the same situation.

If the panel of peers confirm that they would have acted the same, then the doctor will not be considered negligent even if they misdiagnosed an injury. But if the Bolam Test reveals that a panel of the doctor’s peers would have acted differently, the doctor would be considered negligent.

Why Are Broken Bones Misdiagnosed?

Medical professionals have a duty of care to uphold when treating patients. Anyone working in the health and social care industry is expected to provide healthcare without discriminating against anyone seeking medical help. 

The General Medical Council oversees medical training and education for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals. However, instances of misdiagnosis of a broken toe may still happen for a number of reasons. For example:

• Failing to order an X-ray to check for a fracture 
• Misinterpreting the results of an X-ray, leading to a diagnosis being missed 
• An administrative error resulting in the X-rays being misplaced

Get in touch with our team for more information. They may be able to connect you with an expert medical negligence lawyer. 

Limitation Periods On Broken Toe Injury Claims

In most cases, the personal injury claims time limit is three years. This can either be from the date of the accident or the date that you obtained knowledge that your injuries were caused by negligence. 

However, there are exceptions to this. For instance, if the person is under the age of 18 years old, the three-year time limit is frozen until the date of their 18th birthday. However, someone could claim on behalf of the person under the age of 18 by acting as a litigation friend. 

Furthermore, someone may also be able to claim on behalf of someone else as a litigation friend if they lack the mental capacity to claim. The three-year time limit will be frozen unless the injured person recovers their mental capacity to claim for themselves. 

However, if they will never recover their mental capacity or it resulted from a pre-existing condition, e.g. a mental disability, the three-year time limit will be frozen indefinitely. 

Our team of advisors are knowledgeable on the various exceptions to the time limit you have when making a claim. For further information, contact us on the number above.

What Do I Need To Do If I Broke A Toe?

It’s important to seek medical treatment for any broken bones to prevent any complications. In addition to this, your medical report can provide evidence to support the claim that you sustained your injuries in an accident. 

You may also want to collect information related to the circumstances of the accident to prove it was caused by a breach of duty of care. This might include:

• CCTV footage 
• Pictures of the accident scene 
• Witness details

Furthermore, if you are claiming compensation for any special damages, you will require evidence. This can take the form of payslips, receipts and invoices. 

We recommend seeking advice from a solicitor who can guide you through obtaining evidence to build a valid claim. See below for how you could connect with a personal injury solicitor from our panel by speaking to one of our advisors. 

Claim For A Broken Toe On A No Win No Fee Basis

You may feel that seeking legal representation will give you the best chance of success when claiming, but be concerned about the large legal fees that this can sometimes incur. If so, you may find that a No Win No Fee agreement is beneficial. 

The benefits of an agreement like this mean that if your solicitor is unsuccessful, you won’t pay solicitor fees. You also won’t be asked to pay anything for them to start working on your claim, 

If your solicitor is successful with your claim, they’ll deduct a small, legally capped success fee. The fee will be agreed upon with your solicitor before the claim starts. 

If you would like to know more about claiming on a No Win No Fee basis, speak to our team today. If one of our advisors feels your claim has a good chance of success, they may be able to connect you with a No Win No Fee lawyer from our panel.

You can contact us by:

• Calling us on 020 3870 4868
• Filling out our online form
• Chatting with us on live chat at the bottom of the page

Similar And Related Guides

If you were in a road traffic accident that an uninsured driver caused, our guide could provide further information on how to make a claim for your injuries.

Have you had an accident at work? If so, we have created a guide detailing the process of claiming against an employer that could help.

See our guide for claiming compensation for an accident in a shop.

For any medical advice on broken bones, see the NHS website or seek advice from a medical professional.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has some useful information on slips, trips and falls.

For help and advice regarding child accidents and how to prevent them, see the Child Accident Prevention Trust.

Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve included some answers to some common questions below.

What if you don’t have evidence of your injury?

In order to claim compensation, it’s essential that you prove you were injured, so you should try to obtain as much evidence as possible. For example, medical reports, CCTV footage or witness details could all strengthen your claim. 

What if the victim was under 18?

If the person who suffered the injury was under 18, a litigation friend could claim on their behalf while they are still underage. A litigation friend could be a parent, guardian, family friend or solicitor. 

How do you calculate compensation for multiple injuries?

For a personal injury claim, you may claim compensation for multiple injuries. Each of these injuries will be calculated individually and will then be combined when your claim is valued. 

What do I pay if I win my case?

If you choose to have legal representation through a No Win No Fee agreement and your solicitor succeeds in winning your case, you’ll pay a success fee. The fee is legally capped to ensure you always get the majority of the compensation owed to you. 

We hope you found our guide on claiming compensation for a broken toe useful. Thank you for reading. 

Guide by AC

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