Tendon & Ligament Injury
Compensation Claims

If tendon or ligament damage is affecting your mobility, we can help you claim

Tendon and ligament injuries can be very painful and can take a long time to heal. Damage to these tissues, often caused by accidents, heavy lifting, or falls, can limit your mobility, impact your ability to work, and require extensive rehabilitation. Whether it's a torn ligament, strained tendon, or another related injury, recovery may involve surgery, physiotherapy, and time off work. If your injury was caused by the negligence of an employer, road user, medical staff or operator of public premises, you can claim compensation.

Your solicitor will work to prove that negligence was responsible for your injury, to ensure you get the support you need. With a No Win, No Fee claim, you can focus on your recovery while your solicitor handle the legal process.

Key points when you claim for a tendon injury

• Compensation payouts can vary from £8,000 for minor tendon damage to above £60,000 for ruptured tendons and permanent ligament damage.
• You can claim if you were injured by the negligence of another road user, at work, or in an accident in a public place.
• You must start your claim within 3 years from when you learned of your tendon or ligament damage - but the longer you wait to claim, the harder it can be to gather evidence to win your claim.
• Your compensation is based on the seriousness of your symptoms and your prospects for recovery. Check our compensation calculator to see how much you could claim.
• Compensation is also awarded for lost earnings, and to support ongoing care, surgery and treatment costs.
• You can claim on a no win, no fee basis.

With over 30,000 tendon injuries each year, you are not alone

There were 35,775 admissions for tendon and muscle injuries in 2022-23, from our analysis of NHS data (digital.nhs.uk).

Recent Health and Safety Executive (HSE) research shows that there were 480,000 recorded cases of tendon injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) last year (hse.gov.uk).

If you have sustained or developed a tendon injury and someone else was at fault, you may be able to claim financial compensation.

If you need information on tendonitis symptoms and treatment, see: tendonitis (nhs.uk).

Read more:

Work-related injury claims

How much compensation can I claim for a tendon injury?

The compensation you can claim for your tendon injury is based on:

• how serious the injury is,
• the effect of your injury on your daily routine and ability to work,
• any expenses or financial setbacks caused by your injury.

General damages are awarded for pain, suffering and loss of amenity (PSLA). Awards for general damages are set by the Judicial College (judiciary.uk) and published in their guidelines for personal injury awards.

Special damages is compensation awarded to cover any financial losses and expenses you incur as a result of your tendon injury or negligent medical treatment. These damages aim to put you back in the financial position you would have been in, had your injury not occurred.

Special damages will also cover your medical treatment expenses, that might include X-rays, CT and MRI scans, and physiotherapy.

Read more:

A complete list of recoverable losses in a personal injury claim

How is compensation calculated if I have multiple injuries?

Average injury general damages compensation table

The following injury payouts refer to the Guidelines for the Assessment of General Damages in Personal Injury Cases, 17th Edition by the Judicial College (oup.com).

These tables are used by solicitors or by the courts as a starting point when calculating your compensation.

Please note: these average figures represent general damages only, and do not include any element of special damages (e.g. lost wages).

Achilles tendon injury

Neck injury

Thumb injury

Claiming compensation for psychological injuries

If you have suffered psychological harm in addition to a physical injury or illness, you are not alone.

According to our 2025 Personal Injury Claimant Survey shows that 29.03% of potential claimants sustained a psychological injury, 70.97% of which related to a physical injury.

Tendon injuries can cause anxiety about mobility, strength recovery, and the possibility of chronic pain.

A specialist solicitor will consider psychological harm when calculating your compensation. Psychiatric injuries are recognised in the official guidelines for compensation, and the cost of treatment and other mental health support should be included in your compensation award or settlement.

Our compensation calculator can estimate your compensation for psychological injuries. Or you can call us on 0800 376 1001 to speak to a specialist advisor.

Do I qualify for tendon injury compensation?

You can make a claim for a tendon injury, if:

• you became ill within the last 3 years, and;
• another person was at fault, and;
• that person owed a duty of care to prevent foreseeable hazards.

Find out online if you can claim with our injury claim calculator. Alternatively, you can speak to a claims advisor on 0800 376 1001 and find out if you have a claim in minutes.

My injury was partly my fault - can I still claim?

Cases where the defendant and claimant are both partly to blame are actually quite commonplace in personal injury claims.

In our 2025 Personal Injury Claimant Survey, 13.99% of respondents believed they were partly responsible for their injuries, or were uncertain.

When fault on both sides caused a claimant's injuries, this is called 'contributory negligence'. In these situations, compensation may still be payable on the basis of a split liability agreement.

Read more:

Can I claim if I feel I was partly responsible for my accident?

How long after a tendon injury do I have to start a claim?

For most injury claims, you have up to 3 years from the date of your injury to start the claims process.

The 3 year limitation period does not apply to minors (under 18s). A parent, guardian or litigation friend can start a claim on a child's behalf up to their 18th birthday and the child has until their 21st birthday to claim for themselves.

How are tendon injuries caused?

Most work-related tendon injuries, such as Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), affect workers who carry out repetitive movements such as data entry. Office workers, assembly line operators, supermarket checkout operatives and manual labourers are particularly at risk due to the constrained and repetitive nature of their work.

Tendon injuries, such as Achilles tendon ruptures, are also common with slips and trips in public places.

Read more:

Slip and trip compensation claims

Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) claims

If you decide to make a tendon injury claim, your personal injury solicitor will take you through every step of the claims process. Your solicitor will be with you until you win your claim and get the compensation you deserve.

Can I make a work-related tendon injury claim?

A 'tendon injury' is a broad term that includes a number of painful conditions occurring in and around the tendons in response to excessive force, exertion or overuse.

Tendon injuries commonly occur where:

• The same task is carried out continuously over a period of time, leading to conditions such as repetitive strain injury (RSI) and tendonitis.
• The employee is required to adopt a constrained posture such as crouching or kneeling, leading to a gradual deterioration of the tendon (tendinopathy) or bursitis.
• The worker falls from height, slips or trips, or has a manual handling accident in the workplace which can cause a sudden tear in the tendon (tendon rupture).

The cause of your tendon injury is significant. Your solicitor will need to demonstrate that your injury was caused by unsafe work practices and that your employer failed to take the proper precautions to keep you safe.

See also:

Bursitis injury compensation claims

Can I claim compensation for tendinopathy?

This condition is a disease of the tendon that is distinct from RSI, although the symptoms can be similar. Tendinopathy presents as tenderness and pain when the region around the tendon is touched or the tendon is exercised.

Terms used to describe the categories of tendon pain are:

• Tendinitis - meaning inflammation with an acute injury
• Tendinosis - meaning no inflammation but a chronic tendon injury is evident and the result of cellular degeneration
• Tendinopathy - meaning chronic tendon injuries are apparent, but the medical cause of the pain is not necessarily clear

If it can be proved that the harm was the result of an employer's negligence, it may be possible to make a claim for each of the above categories of tendon injury.

Can I claim for Flexor Tendonitis?

The flexor tendons connect the forearm muscles to the finger and thumb bones. Flexor Tendonitis can affect workers who sustained finger injury either through overuse, such as by using a keyboard all day or through a sudden impact.

The Flexor Hallucis Longus muscle connects the fibula leg bone to the big toe via the flexor hallucis longus tendon. Injury can result from wear and tear of this tendon through overuse. Ballet dancers and athletes often experience injury as a result of damage to this tendon, but a jarring impact to the toe can also result in tendonitis.

I am still recovering - When should I start a tendon injury claim?

Most tendon injuries heal without medical intervention, although they may take several weeks or months to do so.

During this time, movement in the affected area may become difficult or even impossible. More persistent injuries may require treatments such as corticosteroid injections or physiotherapy. Surgery may be necessary to repair a ruptured tendon or to treat persistent injuries that have not responded to non-surgical intervention.

As an initial step, the injury lawyer will arrange a medical examination to establish the extent of the tendon injury and the long-term effect this might have on the claimant's life. The medical report is used as a basis for negotiating the settlement award.

Can I claim if a health and safety breach caused my tendon injury?

Employers have a legal duty to protect their employees against the risk of accident and injury in the workplace.

General provisions for this are made in a number of health and safety laws, including:

• The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. These Regulations place a legal duty on employers to provide safe working conditions, safe equipment and appropriate safety training for their employees.
• Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992. This piece of legislation provides guidelines for setting up an ergonomic workstation when working with display screen equipment.

An employer who fails to identify the risks or implement appropriate safety measures as prescribed by the Regulations would be negligent and therefore liable for your injury.

Can I claim if a doctor misdiagnosed my tendon injury?

Almost all tendon injuries cause inflammation and pain. As such, it is common for doctors to mistake a serious tendon injury that requires emergency surgery for a minor injury that does not.

Delays in treatment can drastically reduce the patient's chances of making a successful recovery.

You can make a misdiagnosis compensation claim against a GP, NHS Trust or other medical practitioner or authority in circumstances where:

• Your tendon injury was not promptly diagnosed.
• Your injury was wrongly diagnosed as a less serious condition.
• You were given the wrong treatment for your injury.

In each case, your solicitor will show that the error caused you unnecessary pain and suffering, or led to a worse outcome, delaying or preventing your full recovery.

Read more:

Clinical medical negligence claims

Types of ligament damage

Personal injury solicitors regularly handle ligament injury claims on behalf of a wide range of claimants.

Ligament damage compensation is often sought following work accidents and accidents in public places, particularly slips and trips, but claims can also be made, in some cases, for sporting injuries and for accidents in the home.

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries, a category of knee injury, are among the most common ligament injuries that compensation is claimed for.

Read more:

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury compensation claims

Knee injury compensation claims

What led to your tendon injury?

The process for a tendon injury claim depends on the circumstances of the accident. to learn more, click the icons below:

Work accidents Public places Road accidents Medical negligence Other accidents

Sources

Author:
Howard Willis, Personal injury solicitor

About the author

Howard Willis qualified as a solicitor in 1984 and has specialised in personal injury for over 25 years. He is a member of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and is a recognised Law Society Personal Injury Panel expert.