A Guide To Wheelchair Injury Claims – How To Claim Compensation

Last updated 1st August 2025. If you are wondering about the wheelchair injury claims process, this article may help. We will go over the conditions that could make you eligible to claim personal injury compensation, who could be liable for what happened to you, and the time limit that might apply to your case.

Person attempting to move his wheelchair with his family in the background

A claim could be made following a road traffic accident, an accident in a public place or one that occurred at work. If you were injured as a result of negligent actions, you could be due compensation for your suffering.

Read on to learn more about wheelchair injury claims and wheelchair-related injuries. You can also get in touch with our advisers to discuss your specific circumstances. Contact us in the following ways:

Select A Section

  1. What Are Wheelchair Injury Claims?
  2. Injured In A Care Home Wheelchair
  3. Injured In A Hospital Wheelchair
  4. Injuries Caused By A Defective Wheelchair
  5. Settlements For Wheelchair Injury Claims
  6. What Is Needed To Prove Wheelchair Accident Claims?
  7. Talk To Us About No Win No Fee Wheelchair Injury Claims

What Are Wheelchair Injury Claims?

Wheelchair users could be injured in a number of ways. Wheelchair injury claims could be made if an accident that results in injury happened because of a breach of duty of care. When a duty of care is breached in a way that causes injury, this is an example of negligence.

In order to bring a successful personal injury claim, you must be able to show that 3 criteria apply to your circumstances:

  1. A party owed you a duty of care, some examples of which will be discussed later.
  2. That party breached this duty.
  3. As a result of their breach, you sustained harm in the form of an injury.

Read on to find out more about how you could claim compensation for a wheelchair injury that stemmed from negligence.

Disability Rights

The Equality Act 2010 states that certain individuals and organisations must take reasonable steps to remove barriers preventing someone with a disability from going the same places, performing the same tasks, or receiving the same services as someone who does not have a disability. Barriers can include:

  • Certain practices
  • Physical features of a space
  • A lack of auxiliary aids, such as extra assistance

If a person or organisation does not make reasonable adjustments, this is an example of discrimination. Contact our advisers to find out more or to ask more about wheelchair accident claims.

Injured In A Care Home Wheelchair

If you are a wheelchair occupant and you suffer avoidably due to care home negligence, you may be able to claim compensation. You are owed a duty of care if you’re a service user or a resident in a care home.

If this duty is breached and you’re injured as a result, then this is an example of negligence. For instance, you might need a wheelchair to move from one room to another, and you’re given one by the care home. However, you’re given one that is known to be faulty because another one cannot be found. As a result, you fall from the chair and experience a shoulder injury.

To find out more, contact our advisers about your care home wheelchair injury. They can answer specific questions you may have about wheelchair injury claims.

Injured In A Hospital Wheelchair

As a patient in a hospital, you are also owed a duty of care. You are entitled to receive care of a minimum standard expected of medical professionals.

If the negligent actions of a medical professional caused you to suffer unnecessary harm, then you may be eligible to pursue compensation. For example, if a doctor attempted to move you from a bed to a wheelchair and was too rough, causing you to fall out of the chair and injure yourself.

Contact our advisers to find out more about how wheelchair injury claims may be handled if they occur in a hospital.

Injuries Caused By A Defective Wheelchair

The Consumer Protection Act 1987 offers people who have been injured as a result of a defective product a way of claiming compensation for the harm that they have experienced. Defects in a wheelchair that could result in an accident causing injury include:

  • Defective braking mechanisms
  • Mechanical failures
  • Faulty batteries, which can go on to leak or explode

In order for you to claim, you need to show that the product was faulty when you received it. To learn more, contact our team of advisers. They can walk you through the process of making wheelchair injury claims.

Settlements For Wheelchair Injury Claims

The amount of personal injury compensation you’re awarded may differ depending on the circumstances surrounding how you were harmed. Compensation can consist of up to 2 heads of loss.

General damages, the first head, relate to the pain and suffering caused by your injuries. The second is special damages, which may be awarded to reimburse you for financial losses connected to your injury.

Rather than linking to a personal injury calculator, we’ve included a table containing compensation brackets from the Judicial College Guidelines. This document publishes these suggestive brackets for a wide range of injuries, which a solicitor will sometimes turn to when valuing general damages.

Please remember that the following brackets are guidelines only. Any actual compensation you might be awarded could differ. The initial row isn’t sourced from the JCG.

Injury TypeSeverityCompensation BracketNotes
Multiple Severe Injuries Plus Special DamagesSevereUp to £500,000+An award for sustaining multiple severe injuries plus associated financial losses, such as medical bills.
BackSevere (i)In the Region of £181,020Severe injury featuring nerve and spinal cord damage. Severe pain and disability, amongst other issues.
Back (ii)Severe (ii)£80,240 to £159,770Cases featuring issues like loss of sensation due to nerve root damage and impaired bladder and bowel function.
KneeSevere (i)£85,100 to £117,410Serious injury that disrupts the joint. Amongst other issues, there will be considerable pain, loss of function, and lengthy treatment.
WristLoss of Function (a)£58,710 to £73,050Damage that leads to complete loss of function.
ShoulderSevere£23,430 to £58,610Associated with neck injuries and damage to the brachial plexus. Injury will cause significant disability.
SkeletalFractures of Jaws (i)£37,210 to £55,570Multiple fractures that are very serious, requiring prolonged treatment and leading to permanent effects, including severe pain and eating restrictions.
SkeletalFractures of Jaws (ii)£21,920 to £37,210Serious fracture that results in permanent consequences, like difficulty eating or opening mouth, or paraesthesia of the jaw.
ArmSimple Fractures of the Forearm£8,060 to £23,430Fractures in this bracket will be simple.

Special damages must be supported with evidence in order to be claimed for. If you have documentation like payslips and bank records, these damages can include:

  • Loss of income, including future earnings
  • Prescriptions and medical consultations
  • Travel expenses resulting from getting to and from medical appointments

To find out more about how general and special damages could apply to wheelchair injury claims, talk to our advisers today.

What Is Needed To Prove Wheelchair Accident Claims?

To prove wheelchair accident claims, evidence is needed that shows how any injuries were the result of liable third parties breaching their duty of care. As such, the best types of evidence to support wheelchair injury claims include:

  • The actual wheelchair itself, together with a copy of the manufacturer’s warranty. 
  • Video footage of the accident. That can include CCTV recordings, dashcams, and phone videos.
  • Images of the faulty wheelchair, and/or of the accident scene.
  • If you had the wheelchair repaired, the records might highlight any design or manufacturing flaws. 
  • Witness contact details from those who saw the accident occur, such as another doctor in the hospital. This information can, with their permission, be passed on to a solicitor so that a statement can be obtained for the case.
  • Copies of your medical records, highlighting what injuries you have sustained and any prognosis for your short- and long-term recovery. 

It may seem daunting to have to collect evidence, particularly if you’re still recovering from your experience. This is why if you connect with one of our specialist solicitors, they will be able to help gather all of this evidence for you. Not only can this make the wheelchair accident claims process simpler, but it also helps ensure you are able to stay focused on your recovery.

For more tailored advice on how to prove your wheelchair injury, please contact us today.

Talk To Us About No Win No Fee Wheelchair Injury Claims

Accident Claims could help if you’re thinking about hiring legal representation. If our advisers feel your claim is valid, they may put you in touch with our solicitors, who could offer you a kind of No Win No Fee contract known as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).

When using this agreement, you don’t have to pay any solicitor fees for the services of your legal representative if the claim fails. Neither do you pay these fees to start the claim, nor during the process of pursuing compensation itself.

Instead, you only pay at the end of the process if your claim is successful. You would pay a small percentage of your compensation, referred to as a success fee, for your solicitor’s work. This percentage is capped and cannot exceed a legal limit.

Find out more about wheelchair injury claims today. Our advisers can be contacted using the following details:

Related Wheelchair And Mobility Injury Claims

More guides you may find useful:

Other resources that could help:

We hope this wheelchair injury claims guide has been useful to you, but please also reach out if you have any questions.

Guide by MF

Edited by FS