By Danielle Jordan. Last Updated 24th January 2025. Laser eye surgery claims are valid when a medical professional fails to meet the required standard of care and causes injury to the patient. Damage to your eye can have drastic effects on your lifestyle. You may feel uncertain as to whether you should proceed, but you have a right to seek out legal representation if eligible.
Keep reading this guide for more details on the eligibility requirements, as well as the time limits for claiming laser eye surgery compensation. You can also find out what evidence is needed to build up your case and recover the costs that you have suffered.
Furthermore, we will provide examples of laser surgery negligence to give you a better idea of the types of situations for which you could claim compensation. Finally, we will explain the No Win No fee service offered by our solicitors and the benefits that this entails.
You can contact an advisor if you have any questions at all. They are here to help you find out if you can proceed and potentially refer you to an experienced personal injury solicitor. You can seek out their help:
- Via our online contact form
- Via telephone on 0800 073 8804
If you would rather talk over your claim, instead of reading this whole guide, you can call Legal Expert on 0800 073 8804 today, and we will do everything we can to help you begin a claim. You can also reach us online using our contact form
Select a Section:
- Eye Injury Claim – Am I Entitled To Claim?
- Laser Eye Surgery Claims – Time Limits
- Evidence That Can Support Laser Eye Surgery Claims
- Laser Eye Surgery Gone Wrong – Compensation Examples
- No Win No Fee Laser Eye Surgery Claims
Eye Injury Claim – Am I Entitled To Claim?
If you have suffered unnecessary harm during your procedure, you could potentially make an eye injury claim. However, you would need to prove that you were injured due to a breach of duty of care.
Medical professionals are expected to deliver a minimum standard of care. Clinical negligence can take many forms, including misdiagnosis, wrong diagnosis and delayed treatment.
If you have a valid claim for eye injury, our solicitors at Legal Expert could support you. Our specialist solicitors have years of experience in helping clients make successful eye injury claims and could guide you through the entire process.
Laser Eye Surgery Claims – Time Limits
Generally, there is a three year time limit in which you must start a claim. This is under the Limitation Act 1980.
There can be exceptions to this rule. For example, if a claimant was under the age of 18 when they suffered from laser eye damage, they would not be able to pursue a claim until they were 18, at which point they would have until they were 21 to begin a claim.
The time limit is suspended indefinitely for someone who lacks the mental capacity to claim. It would only begin if they regained their mental capacity.
A litigation friend may be enlisted to start a claim on the behalf of someone who lacks the mental capacity or a child.
Speak to our advisors to find out how you can work with the best medical negligence solicitors near you for your claim for compensation.
Evidence That Can Support Laser Eye Surgery Claims
A valid medical negligence claim should be supported by evidence that can prove that the procedure has gone wrong and that this caused you harm. If you cannot provide the relevant evidence, your claim is unlikely to be eligible for compensation.
Therefore, to prove medical negligence, you may consider collecting evidence such as:
- Any written correspondence between you and your opticians, including e-mails
- Medical records that can show you have had treatment for your laser eye damage
- Photographs of your affected eye A diary of your symptoms to show how you have been affected
- Proof of any special damages, i.e. receipts for any medication you have bought to alleviate symptoms
Speak with an advisor who can offer you free insight into other evidence you could obtain. Alternatively, continue reading to find out how a No Win No Fee solicitors can help you gather evidence during the medical negligence claims process.
Laser Eye Surgery Gone Wrong – Compensation Examples
Compensation in successful medical negligence claims can be awarded under up to two separate heads of loss, general and special damages. The physical and psychiatric effects of negligent laser surgery are compensated under general damages, whereas you will receive compensation for associated financial impacts under special damages. We’ll look at special damages further down.
Coming up with a potential compensation figure is something our solicitors can assist you with. The legal team assigned the responsibility of calculating a possible general damages amount can use your medical evidence alongside the guidelines from the Judicial College.
Referred to as the JCG, this detailed publication contains compensation guidelines for various types of harm. We have provided some guidelines relevant to eye surgery claims in our table here.
Compensation Table
It is important we emphasise that the compensation amounts given here are intended as guidance only. The first entry was not taken from the JCG
| Injury | Severity | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Very Severe Injuries As Well Significant Financial Losses. | Very Severe | Up to £1,000,000+ |
| Injuries Affecting Sight | Complete Blindness | In the region of £327,940 |
| Loss of Sight in A Single Eye with Reduced Vision in the Remaining Eye | £117,150 to £219,400 | |
| Loss of Sight in A Single Eye with Reduced Vision in the Remaining Eye | £78,040 to £129,330 | |
| Loss of One Eye | £66,920 to £80,210 | |
| Permanent and Complete Loss of Sight (One Eye) | £60,130 to £66,920 | |
| Serious But Incomplete Loss of Vision (One Eye) | £28,900 to £48,040 | |
| Minor but Permanent Impairment (One or Both Eyes) | £11,120 to £25,600 | |
| Minor | £4,820 to £10,660 | |
| Transient | £2,690 to £4,820 |
Special Damages
As we touched on above, the financial losses you incur due to damage to your sight can be compensated under special damages. A total or even partial loss of vision can have significant impacts on your day-to-day life.
Special damages aim to quantify these impacts, both in terms of current and future losses. It is, therefore, very often the case that the compensation awarded under special damages will be greater than that received under general damages.
Examples of costs that may be compensated under special damages include:
- Lost earnings.
- Medical expenses.
- Cost of care.
- Transport costs.
- Accessibility modifications to your home.
Remember to hold onto copies of your payslips, invoices for care, travel tickets and any other documents that show you incurred these losses. The information given here is intended to act as guidance only. Since medical negligence claims are calculated case-by-case, we cannot guarantee a payout value. To ask any questions you may have about laser eye surgery compensation after a mishandled surgery, or to get a more in-depth idea of what your potential claim could be worth, call our advisors today.
No Win No Fee Laser Eye Surgery Claims
If you have a valid case, you could seek compensation with the expert help of a Legal Expert solicitor. Thanks to decades of experience in handling cases, our solicitors are experienced in making laser eye procedure claims and could help you get the best outcome.
Our solicitors take on claims for compensation under No Win No Fee terms. If a solicitor agreed to take your case, they would offer you a Conditional Fee Agreement.
This would ensure that you aren’t paying for their work upfront or as the case goes on. Furthermore, there’s no solicitor fee to pay should the claim fail.
If your claim for compensation is successful, they collect a minor percentage of the compensation awarded to you. A legal cap, put in place by The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013, ensures that the percentage that goes to the solicitor is much smaller than the amount set aside for you.
Talk To Our Team Today About Your Laser Eye Surgery Claim
Have you suffered a laser eye procedure that did not meet the correct standards? Did the treatment procedure fail to correct the problem? If so, you could seek a settlement. Legal Expert can help you to do this. You can contact us by:
- Calling us on 0800 073 8804
- Using our contact form
- Contacting us through our 24/7 live chat service
If you still have any questions about laser eye surgery claims or laser eye surgery compensation, you can contact Legal Expert today for help. You can speak with an advisor using the contact details included within this guide.
