Loss of sight

If you suffer a loss of sight this means that you have an impairment in your vision. If it is a minor impairment, you are likely to need glasses to compensate for it. However, a more significant loss of sight can mean surgery. 

When you lose all sight in both of your eyes or all your sight in one but in the other suffer a significant sight loss, you are legally blind.

While we've listed some examples below of the types of accidents that can cause sight loss, there really is no ‘typical' accident or negligent act that can cause you to lose your sight. So if you've experienced an accident type that isn't listed below, it's likely we can still help.

Car Accident

Nobody really expects to have their vision effected by a car accident, and yet this injury is scarily possible.

If your vision has been impaired or lost because you were involved in a car accident which wasn't your fault, then we can help you. This includes accidents where your face and eye area suffered trauma leading to a partial or permanent loss of sight, or where the airbag inflated leading to debris or foreign objects to enter your eye.

Accidents at work and exposure to bright lights

Unfortunately, some working environments can be particularly dangerous for your eyes. Your safety is often in the hands of your employer and those working around you, and it's important that the correct safety equipment is provided for you.

Your employer is required by law to try and keep you as a safe as possible at work - this includes providing you with the correct safety equipment to protect your eyes from strong lights such as welding torches or lasers, and from hazards that could enter the eyes, such as mechanical springs or small pieces of material.

Medical mistake

If your eye injury was the result of medical negligence, we know that the impact on your life will be significant, leaving you dependent on those around you and distrusting of medical professionals. Please know that you're not alone and whether it was a misdiagnosis, surgical error or something else, we can help you.

Deteriorating vision

It may be that your vision has gotten worse over time. If this is due to working conditions or an accident that happened earlier in your life, you may be able to make a claim.

We recommend that you get in contact with us on  to discuss your experience, so that we can let you know how we can help.

If a person loses their eyesight, whether or not they can recover depends on the eye damage or vision damage they have suffered. This is often dependent on how soon the eye damage or blinding injuries are treated. For example, diabetes-related retinopathy, if treated correctly, can restore or maintain vision. 

We understand that suffering an eye injury or any loss of vision is a traumatic event.

Losing your sight will undoubtedly have affected your independence and finances, and it's likely that even the most resilient of us would feel challenged and affected by our new situation.

Making a compensation claim can help you get support for your future and can also help to support those around you, who you may now be more dependent on for help and care.

In more permanent sight loss cases, your compensation could help towards adaptations to your home to make it more accessible for you, and can help support you with household bills and expenses if you've been left unable to work. Your compensation could also help pay back those who have cared for you while you were at your most dependent and vulnerable.

While we know that no amount of money can erase what you've been through, making a claim for compensation can really make a difference to your life and help you to adjust to the impact your injury has had on you.

If your sight loss is the fault of third party who was legally responsible for your health and safety but failed in their legal duty, you may be able to make a sight loss compensation claim. 

To make a sight loss compensation claim, you need to prove that all of the following apply:

• a duty of care was legally due to you by the party you claim against;
• their duty of care was broken due to negligence
• as a result of the above, you suffered sight loss or a blinding injury

Unfortunately, people do lose their sight through medical negligence and if you lost your sight this way, you can make a compensation claim.  However, medical negligence can be difficult to prove so a specialised solicitor will need to carefully process your claim. 

Medical negligence is when:

• acceptable medical standards are not met due to a mistake in your medical care
• the mistakes were a direct reason for your sight loss or they contributed towards it

Medical negligence can occur, for example, because your GP failed to understand your symptoms leading to a wrong diagnosis of your condition or due to a hospital not treating you correctly and in time. 

If you are blinded in the workplace or have any eye injury which results in a loss of vision, you may be able to make a compensation claim. You can do so if your employer, or someone who works for them, was at fault for causing or contributing towards your injury. This is because your employer has a legal duty to keep you healthy and safe at work, and if they breach this, you can make a compensation claim.  

If you want to make a compensation claim for sight loss or a blinding injury, you need evidence to support this is crucial to prove the party you claim against is at fault for causing your sight loss. Evidence can include:

• medical records
• accident report forms
• any witness statements concerning the injury 
• medical professional evidence
• video or photos

It is possible in some circumstances to claim on behalf of someone else such as a family member. You can do this for:

• a child
• someone who has passed away 
• someone who doesn't have the mental capacity to make their own claim

You should note that for the latter person, there is no time to make their claim. 

The amount of compensation you could receive for any personal injury compensation claim will vary as it depends mainly on:

• how serious your injuries are, which can include effects arising from the injury such as psychological distress
• the impact the loss of sight or blinding injury has had on your life such as the need to make additions to your life or loss of amenities which is the loss to your social life, hobbies and family activities
• expenses incurred such as medical and carer ones or for learning Braille
• any earnings lost due to your sight loss or blinding injury
• potential future losses

Again, the amount of compensation you can receive for your sight loss or blinding injury will depend on the circumstances of your sight loss. However, to give you an example of what you might receive, the estimated compensation for loss of sight in two eyes, so total blindness, is around £175,000 but could be as high as £268,720.

As with all personal injury or medical negligence claims, when you make a compensation claim for loss of sight you have a strict legal time frame within which you must do this. This is why it is essential to engage a solicitor in the process immediately.

You have three years from the date of sight loss or bleeding injury to start the claim. Alternatively, you have three years from the date you were aware the injury or sight loss occurred, which is the date of knowledge. 

However, if you are making a compensation claim for a child, you have until they reach the age of 18 to make the claim. If you are claiming sight loss or a blinding injury which took place when you were a child, you have three years from the date of your 18th birthday to make the claim. 

If you have been unfortunate enough to suffer sight loss or a blinding injury due to the fault of another, you may have the right to make a compensation claim. At National Accident Helpline, we can make this easy and risk-free for you. This is because with us you can make your compensation claim for sight loss or blinding injury on a no-win no fee basis. This means that you pay nothing to make your claim.  So, if for any unlikely reason, you don't win your sight loss compensation claim, you won't have lost a penny.

We know that you may feel nervous or anxious about contacting us. But that's the last thing we want you to feel. In fact, we pride ourselves on helping people like you to feel supported and informed about your legal position.

That's why your call with us is completely free, confidential and advisory. So you can be sure we're here to listen and will never pressure you into making a claim.

When you call, we'd like to hear about your experience, the accident that led to your vision impairment, and the effects that's had on your life and your loved ones too. You don't need to know the exact details at this point, but approximate dates and information is useful.

If we think you have a claim during your call, we'll let you know and will ask your permission to put you in contact with a specialist solicitor. If you decide that you'd like to go ahead, then you'll be transferred to them for a further free legal consultation.

During your call you'll be speaking to one of our specialist advisors who have experience working with serious injuries like yours. So please feel free to ask them any questions you have.

Calling on behalf of a loved one

If you're thinking of calling us on behalf of a loved one, we can help.

We know that it's very common in cases like this to be thinking about the support and apology your loved one deserves, but if, for example, they're in hospital undergoing medical treatment then they may feel unable to talk to us personally.

If this is the case, then there's still a good chance we can help, as we can talk to you on their behalf to let you know whether we think they're eligible to claim compensation for their injury.

To find out more about making an enquiry on a loved one's behalf please visit our dedicated page about claiming on someone else's behalf.

Starting your claim is straightforward when you contact us.

We believe you shouldn't have to deal with the stress of finding a solicitor or calling around to find a personal injury specialist who has experience working with your type of claim. We know this is time-consuming and sometimes disheartening.

That's why when you call us we'll give you free advice and can usually let you know if we think you have a claim on the same call. We'll pick an experienced specialist solicitor from one of our panel firms to work with you throughout your case.

And we'll only transfer you to a solicitor if we think you have a case and you give us your clear permission. So if you simply want to know if you're entitled to compensation but you're not quite ready to start your case, that's fine. We'll hold your details securely for when you're ready.

If you're ready to start you claim or to speak to somebody about your accident, please call us on  or enter your details into one of our forms and we'll call you back.