Hernia Injury Claims
From lifting at work, or from surgery that went wrong
Hernias are common, and that is exactly what makes these claims worth getting right. The question is never simply whether you have one. It is whether the lift you were told to do, or the operation you were given, is the reason you have it. We handle hernia injury claims on a No Win No Fee basis and will give you an honest view of where you stand.
Regulated solicitors
Years' experience
No Win No Fee
Can you make a hernia injury claim?
Hernia claims come to us by two quite different routes. Which one you are on changes who the claim is against and what has to be proved.
A hernia from lifting at work
Most hernia at work claims follow lifting: a load that was too heavy, an awkward one nobody planned for, or a job done alone that needed two people. Regulation 4 of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 requires your employer to avoid hazardous manual handling so far as is reasonably practicable, to assess what cannot be avoided, and to reduce the risk to the lowest level reasonably practicable.
A hernia injury at work claim turns on whether any of that was done, and hernia at work compensation is recovered from your employer’s insurer rather than from the business or from anyone you work with.
A hernia caused by surgery
This route is clinical negligence rather than an accident at work. It covers a hernia that appeared after an unrelated operation, a repair that failed, and problems following mesh repair, where the question is what was used, how it was fitted and what you were told about the risks beforehand.
The claim is against the trust or the private provider, and compensation for hernia operation failures is proved with the operation note and the consent record rather than with a risk assessment. The timing is different too, because the date you knew something had gone wrong is often long after the operation itself.
Hernias also follow road traffic collisions and accidents in public places. If yours does not fit either box neatly, describe what happened and we will work out which route applies.
Was it the lifting, or were you always going to
get one?
This is the fight in almost every hernia claim, and it is worth understanding before you start. Hernias often develop where the abdominal wall was already weak, and that weakness can be there for years without anyone knowing. Insurers know it too.
So the response to a hernia at work claim is rarely “that did not happen”. It is more often “that would have happened anyway”. The argument runs that the lift was coincidental, that the hernia was waiting to appear, and that the employer therefore did not cause anything.
It is an argument that can be answered, and the answer is usually built from unglamorous detail: what you were actually lifting and how, whether you felt it go at a specific moment, when you first reported it, and what a surgeon says about the type of hernia and its likely trigger.
Even where a weakness existed, the law can recognise a claim where unsafe work brought the problem on sooner or made it worse than it would have been. That is why the timing of what you said, and to whom, matters so much on this particular injury.
of reported workplace injuries come from handling, lifting or carrying
Only slips, trips and falls on the same level account for more, at 30%. Those two kinds of accident together make up around half of everything employers report. Lifting is not an unusual way to be hurt at work, which is precisely why the Manual Handling Operations Regulations require the task to be assessed. Whether it was is what a hernia at work claim examines.
Hernia compensation payouts and amounts
Hernia compensation payouts UK wide, and hernia compensation amounts generally, are made of two parts: general damages for the injury and its effect on your life, and special damages for what it has cost you. On this injury the second part is frequently the larger, because the money follows whether you can go back to physical work.
Hernia compensation payouts UK wide come in two halves: general damages for the injury itself, and special damages for what it has cost you. On a hernia the second half is usually the larger one, because the money follows what the repair does to your working life, not what the hernia looked like on the day it happened.
So the figure worth caring about is not a bracket from a page that will not say where it came from. It is what a surgeon says about your repair, because that is what actually moves a hernia compensation claim.
That is also why every published range is so wide. Most repairs settle down. A minority do not. The Royal College of Surgeons’ groin hernia commissioning guide records that five years after an inguinal hernia repair, between 2% and 3.5% of patients still report moderate to severe chronic pain. Those two outcomes sit at opposite ends of the same bracket, and which one you are in is not known for months after surgery. That is the single fact that moves a hernia compensation claim.
Is there a hernia compensation calculator?
Is there a hernia compensation calculator?
No calculator can value a hernia claim, because the single biggest variable is whether the repair holds, and that is not known for months. Two people with the same diagnosis and the same job can be in very different positions a year later.
What we can do on a first call is tell you which route you are on, how strong the cause argument looks on your facts, and what the claim is likely to include. How much compensation for hernia at work questions get an honest range once the surgeon’s report is in, and not before.
Evidence that supports a
hernia injury claim
Because the fight is about cause rather than whether you are injured, the useful evidence is about the task and the timing rather than the
hernia itself.
Cannot remember the dates? Almost nobody can. We reconstruct employment history as a matter of routine, and we arrange the medical assessment.
No Win No Fee hernia injury claims
A No Win No Fee agreement, properly called a Conditional Fee Agreement, means there is nothing to pay upfront. If the claim does not succeed, you do not pay us for our work, subject to the terms of your agreement.
If it succeeds, a success fee agreed with you in advance comes out of your compensation. There is a legal cap on that fee in personal injury claims, and it is worth understanding properly: the cap is calculated on your damages for the injury itself and your past financial losses, not on the whole settlement, because future losses are left out of the calculation. Your agreement will set out the exact percentage in writing before you sign.
Asking whether you have a claim commits you to nothing, and there is no cold calling afterwards.
Hernia injury claims
your questions answered
The questions we are asked most, answered plainly.
Can I claim if I got a hernia lifting at work?
Often, yes, if the lifting should have been managed better. The duty under regulation 4 runs in three stages: avoid the hazardous handling where you reasonably can, assess whatever is left, then bring the risk down as far as is reasonably practicable. Where none of that happened and a hernia followed, there may be a hernia at work claim. Expect the insurer to argue it would have happened anyway, and expect that argument to be answerable.
How much compensation for a hernia at work?
It depends on whether the repair held and whether you can go back to the same work. We give you a range once the surgeon has reported, and we do not give one before, for the reason set out above.
Is a hernia a work related injury?
It can be. Hernia injury at work claims do not require a single dramatic accident, and a hernia work related injury claim can follow one lift or a pattern of unsafe lifting over time. What matters is whether the task was assessed and whether you were trained and equipped for it.
What if I already had a weakness there?
That is the insurer’s usual defence and it does not end the claim. Where unsafe work brought a hernia on sooner, or made it worse than it would otherwise have been, the law can still recognise a claim.
Can I claim if my hernia came from an operation?
Yes, as a clinical negligence claim rather than an accident at work claim. Medical negligence hernia repair claims turn on the operation note, the consent record and an independent surgical opinion on whether the care fell below a reasonable standard.
Will I lose my job if I claim against my employer?
The claim is answered by your employer’s insurer, not out of the business, because employers must carry that cover under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. If you are dismissed afterwards, whether you have an employment claim depends on your length of service and the reason given, and that is a separate question from your injury claim. Tell us if it happens and we will point you to someone who deals with it.
Is there a time limit on making a hernia injury at work claim?
Three years under section 11 of the Limitation Act 1980, running from the accident or from your date of knowledge, whichever is later. For a hernia that built up over time the date of knowledge is usually the later date.
Find out where you stand
Tell us what happened and how you have been since. We will explain which route applies to you, what it would involve, and whether it is worth pursuing. If it is not, we will say so.
- Free, confidential and without obligation
- No Win No Fee available
- SRA-regulated solicitors
Check if you can make a claim
Takes less than 60 seconds
Other claims we handle
Find out whether you have a claim
A lot of people assume that because hernias are common, nobody is responsible for theirs. Sometimes that is right. Often it is not, and the only way to know is to have someone look at the task you were asked to do. The conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
Related Blogs
