Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) Compensation Claims Guide

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A Guide To Claiming ABH Compensation

By Mary Hightown. Last Updated 4th July 2024. Because of its harmful nature, cases of Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) typically involve a victim who has suffered significant physical or mental harm. Our guide to ABH compensation explains in detail how a victim of such a violent crime could seek damages for its effects on them.

We focus on the process of claiming through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). You can learn what the CICA is and how an ABH claim works, as well as learning about the compensation that can be awarded for assault, ABH and other violent crimes.

Finally, we explain how making a criminal injury compensation claim with an expert solicitor on a No Win No Fee basis could benefit you.

We’re here to provide free and confidential guidance that’s available around the clock, so please don’t hesitate to either:

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What Is Actual Bodily Harm?

You may have seen the term ABH used before and asked, “What does ABH stand for?” It is short for Actual Bodily Harm, which is a form of assault or battery that causes the victim to suffer physical pain. The victim suffering actual harm sets it aside from common assault.

An assault is likely to be counted as ABH if it causes:

  • Bruising.
  • Bite marks.
  • Scratches.
  • Significant but not critically serious harm or pain.

For example, repeated attacks on the same person which cause bruising, cuts and damage to the face or teeth could lead to an ABH charge.

You could claim compensation for any form of harmful criminal assault and ABH is no exception. Just call our free helpline using the number above to learn if we can help you with your ABH claim.

CICA ABH Compensation Claims

Let’s now look at the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in more detail. The CICA is an agency of the Ministry of Justice. They award compensation for people injured in violent crimes.

The CICA is bound by the rules of the government’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. When reviewing claims, the CICA officers assess them against the scheme’s criteria to decide when to pay and how much compensation to award.

The CICA scheme has its own criteria, which are different from those used to value personal injury claims. To be entitled to claim through the scheme, you must:

  • Have been injured in a violent crime in England, Wales or Scotland
  • Be pursuing your claim within 2 years of the incident happening (however, some exceptions can apply to this time limit)
  • Have reported the crime to the police as soon as possible after the incident

Again, you do not need to know who assaulted you. They don’t need to have been found, charged or prosecuted either. That’s because the CICA scheme is based on the balance of probabilities rather than requiring concrete evidence about what happened.

Therefore, if you’ve reported the crime to the police, you could be compensated regardless of the outcome of their investigations. However, you need to show that you were cooperative with the police during their investigation of the crime, as otherwise, this could negatively affect your claim.

To find out more about claiming ABH compensation through the CICA, please contact an advisor today.

Is ABH Worse Than GBH?

Actual Bodily Harm and Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH) are both forms of assault. They are both crimes that could result in the criminal being sent to prison.

GBH is an act that causes really serious harm, meaning it is the worse of the two crimes. However, the injuries do not have to be permanent or life-threatening in order for someone to be found guilty of GBH.

Crimes that could lead to a GBH conviction include those that cause a loss of sensory function, visible disfigurement or permanent disability. Typically, GBH involves injuries like broken bones, substantial loss of blood or serious psychological injuries.

The two offences covered by GBH are:

  • Causing grievous bodily harm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
  • Unlawful wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The first case (GBH with intent) carries a maximum term of life imprisonment. To be found guilty of unlawful wounding, the skin must be broken in some way. This can lead to up to 5 years in prison.

If you have been assaulted and would like to check if you could claim ABH compensation, please call our specialist advisors today. One of our advisors will be happy to offer you free legal advice about the process of making a claim.

What Injuries Could The Victim Suffer?

As described above, ABH will result in injuries that are obvious but don’t have any serious impact on your health. The types of injuries that could lead to ABH compensation include:

  • Light bruising.
  • Small scratches.
  • Grazes and cuts

Remember, though, if you are claiming compensation after being assaulted, it’s possible that you could also claim for any psychological injuries. For example, you might need to consider the fact that you get overwhelmed with anxiety when you go near the place where the crime was committed. You might also suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which could have an impact on your quality of life.

To discuss how you’ve been affected and to find out if you could claim, please call our team today. Otherwise, read on to find out more about how to report this kind of crime.

Reporting Actual Bodily Harm

In this section, we are going to look at how to report a crime that could lead to an ABH compensation claim.

ABH claims against employers

If you’re assaulted whilst at work, you may decide to take action against your employer for failing to protect you. If that is the course of action you take, you should report the incident to your supervisor as soon as possible and make sure it is recorded in the company’s accident report book.

However, in order to pursue a claim, you need to show that your employer did not do everything they could to stop the assault from happening. For instance, if you were assaulted by a colleague who had spent the last few weeks talking about their plans to hit you and your employer did nothing to stop this, then you may be able to claim.

However, if an on-the-spot argument escalated into physical violence, you may not be entitled to claim. This is because there is nothing that your employer reasonably could have done to stop the incident from happening.

Importantly, your employer cannot take any action against you for claiming against them. That means you can’t be sacked, dismissed, or treated differently.

ABH in public places

If somebody commits ABH against you in a pub, nightclub or any other public place, you may have grounds to make a personal injury claim against the business responsible. That’s because they will have a duty of care towards your safety whilst on their premises.

Therefore, in a nightclub, for instance, you might have grounds for compensation if another customer was drunk and there weren’t any security staff monitoring the area for trouble. Again, you should report the incident to the business owner and ask for a copy of the accident report.

However, your eligibility to claim compensation in these circumstances will depend on what it’s reasonable to expect the nightclub to have done. If they can show that they took all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of patrons, you may not be able to claim even if you were injured.

As we’ll explain shortly, if you claim through the CICA, the crime must have been reported to the police as soon as possible. If you cannot report it to the police right away, you should be able to provide evidence as to why you were unable to do this.

Calculating ABH Compensation Claims

Let’s now look at what amount of ABH compensation might be paid for different injuries. To help, we’ve provided two compensation tables. Table 1 shows the amounts you might be paid when claiming through the CICA scheme. The second table shows potential compensation amounts that might be paid if you win a civil case.

Table 1: CICA Compensation

These figures are from the CICA Tariff of Injuries.

Injury ClaimSeverityCompensation Tariff
Severe Psychological Injury with Special ExpensesSevereUp to £500,000
PsychologicalModerate Permanent Injury£19,000
HeadMinor£6,200
SkullSimple Skull Fractures£3,500
EyeModerate£6,200
JawDislocation£3,500
ArmLoss of Function of the Dominant Arm£44,000
WristSingle Wrist Fracture£6,200
LungSingle Lung Puncture£1,500
LegFractured Femur£4,600

Assault Compensation – Calculating Compensation In A Personal Injury Claim

If seeking assault compensation, you may be able to seek compensation either through the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority (CICA) or through a personal injury claim. Depending on how you claim, your payout will be calculated differently. While there is a fixed tariff for injuries in the CICA scheme, there are no fixed amounts for injury types when claiming through a civil claim.

In a personal injury claim, your compensation for ABH assault is determined by your specific circumstances rather than from a fixed tariff. The severity of your injury and its impact are some of the factors that can affect your payout. Additionally, solicitors use compensation amounts from the Judicial College Guidelines to assist them in valuing claims.

Your claim could comprise general damages and special damages. While general damages compensate for your pain and suffering, special damages can compensate you if you have suffered financial loss due to your ABH injuries.

The list of compensation payouts in the table below are taken from the 2022 edition of the JCG. However, please bear in mind that the assault compensation you receive for your ABH injuries may not match the amounts in the table as they are only a guide.

Injury ClaimSeveritySettlement Bracket
Multiple Severe Injuries plus Special DamgesSevereUp to £100,000+
Arm Injuries Injuries Resulting In A Substantial and Permanent Disability£47,810 to £73,050
Leg Less Serious (i)£21,920 to £33,880
Psychological HarmModerate£7,150 to £23,270
Chest Simple£15,370 to £21,920
HeadMinor£2,690 to £15,580
Fractures of JawsSimple (iii)£7,880 to £10,660
Injuries Affecting SightMinor£4,820 to £10,660
WristUncomplicated Colles FractureIn the region of £9,070

The figures listed relate to general damages: an amount awarded for the pain and suffering an injury has caused. You can also claim an amount for the financial impact of your injury. This is special damages. You could be able to request compensation for:

  • Your affected income
  • Cost of your treatment or care needs
  • Cost of aids you need to help you manage your injury

For more information on seeking compensation for an ABH injury or ABH criminal assault by making a civil claim, call our team.

Other Damages You Could Claim

When you make any type of compensation claim, it’s important to consider whether your injuries have affected you financially. In civil claims, this is called a special damages claim. Financial claims through the CICA scheme are called special expenses. The types of claims you could make include those for:

  • Loss of earnings. This may be possible if your injuries prevented you from working and you didn’t receive full sick pay.
  • Medical expenses. Although you will be treated free by the NHS, you could still incur some costs. Therefore, you could claim for prescription fees or treatments not available on the NHS.
  • Care costs. You might need to claim an hourly rate for a friend or relative who needed to support you during your recovery. A claim may also be possible if you had to pay a professional carer.
  • Modifications to your home. If your injuries have left you with some type of disability, it could be possible to claim for the cost of changing your home to make it easier to cope.
  • Travel costs. If you make multiple trips to a hospital or GP surgery, you may incur fuel or public transport costs. Therefore, you could add these to the value of your claim.

CICA special expenses

When claiming special expenses through the CICA scheme, you’ll need to prove that:

  • The costs were caused directly by the criminal injury you sustained.
  • That there isn’t another way of receiving the same benefit for free (i.e. through the NHS).
  • That the cost is reasonable.

There are some more restrictions to what you can include in a claim for special expenses. For instance, you can only claim special expenses if you lost earning capacity for at least 28 weeks after the incident in which you were injured.

If you’d like to know more about what special damages or expenses you could request in an ABH compensation claim, please call our team today. You can also get in touch to find out some of the exceptions that apply when making a CICA claim for special expenses. Otherwise, read on to find out more about No Win No Fee agreements.

No Win No Fee Claims For ABH Compensation

Something that might be worrying you about the claims process is how much a solicitor will cost. However, if you work with Legal Expert you won’t need to pay any solicitor’s fees upfront. This is because, if your case is accepted, your solicitor will provide their services on a No Win No Fee basis.

Before agreeing to represent you, the solicitor will review your claim in detail to check that it is viable. If they believe they can win the case, you’ll be offered a No Win No Fee agreement. This shows you what your solicitor needs to achieve before you need to pay them. If your claim fails, you won’t need to pay the solicitor’s fees.

Where compensation is paid out, your solicitor will deduct a success fee. Legally, success fees are capped so you cannot be overcharged.

To learn if your claim could be accepted on a No Win No Fee basis, please call today.

Start Your ABH Compensation Claim

You are nearly at the end of this guide about ABH compensation. If you are considering claiming and would like our support, here are the ways you can get in touch:

We are proud to offer free claims advice and a no-obligation review of any claim. To make things easier, our claims line operates 24-7.

Read More

To help you further, this section contains a few additional guides and resources.

Reporting Historical Abuse – Details on the process for reporting historical abuse to the police.

Broken Bones – NHS guidance on how to know if you’ve broken a bone.

Coping With Crime – A helpful article from the charity Victim Support.

Below, you can learn more about CICA claims via our other guides:

If you would like to speak to an advisor about claiming for ABH compensation, you can contact Legal Expert for support. You can reach us using the contact details included within this guide.

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    • Patrick Mallon

      Patrick is a Grade A solicitor having qualified in 2005. He's an an expert in accident at work and public liability claims and is currently our head of the EL/PL department. Get in touch today for free to see how we can help you.

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