How much compensation can you expect?
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Published by Rooney Family Law Limited, solicitors, regulated by the Law Society of Scotland. Last reviewed 20th September 2026.
Scottish injury compensation has two parts: an amount for the injury itself, called solatium, and an amount for what the injury has cost you in money. Nobody can value your claim without medical evidence, and anyone who gives you a figure before seeing it is guessing.
The first part: the injury itself
Solatium compensates the pain, the suffering and the loss of enjoyment of life the injury has caused. It is assessed by looking at what courts have awarded in comparable cases, and in practice Scottish solicitors and courts use the Judicial College Guidelines as a reference point alongside Scottish case law. Those Guidelines are produced for England and Wales and are not binding here, but they are the common currency of injury valuation across Britain. The current eighteenth edition was published on 9th April 2026 and raised the brackets by about 8.26 per cent to reflect inflation.
To give a sense of scale rather than a valuation, the eighteenth edition places wrist injuries expected to make a complete recovery across guideline categories ranging from about £4,670 to £13,670, depending particularly on recovery time, a moderate ankle injury between £18,150 and £35,130, a minor foot injury at up to £18,150, and a severe brain injury between £372,570 and £533,720.
They exclude every penny of financial loss, which is often the larger part of a claim. They are guideline reference ranges for the injury element alone, not binding in Scotland, and a court adjusts for your age, your recovery, your work and how the injury has actually affected your life. They are not a prediction about your case, and nobody should treat them as one.
The second part: what it has cost you
This can be a substantial part of the claim, and in serious cases may exceed the injury award. It is also the part people forget. Wages lost and to be lost; treatment, including private physiotherapy where the waiting list is long; travel to appointments; equipment and adaptations; damaged belongings; and the value of care and help your family have given you, which Scottish law allows you to claim under sections 8 and 9 of the Administration of Justice (Scotland) Act 1982 even though nobody sent you a bill. Where you can no longer do things you used to do for your household, that counts too.
A modest injury with six months off work can be worth considerably more than a nastier injury to someone who lost no earnings. This is why keeping payslips, receipts and a note of the help you have needed matters so much.
Why calculators mislead
Three reasons. Most are built for England and Wales, and for whiplash they apply a fixed government tariff that does not exist in Scotland. They value the injury element only, and so miss the half of the claim that is often bigger. And they cannot see your medical evidence, which is the thing that actually decides the number. We do not publish a calculator, because we could not make an honest one.
What comes off before you are paid
If you are funded by a no win no fee agreement, the specialist firm's success fee comes out of your compensation. Scottish law caps it at 20 per cent of the first £100,000, including VAT, so on £10,000 of compensation the most that can be taken is £2,000. The firm must tell you its actual percentage in writing before you sign. See what no win no fee means in Scotland.
If you received certain state benefits because of the accident, the Compensation Recovery Unit requires the insurer to repay them, and some of that can be set against parts of your award. Your solicitor will explain whether it affects you. Interest may be added to reflect the time you have waited.
What actually moves the number in your case
How badly you were hurt, and for how long. Whether you have made a full recovery or have been left with something permanent. Whether you could work, and what you earn. Your age, because a permanent injury at thirty is worth more than the same injury at seventy. Whether you were partly responsible, because contributory negligence can reduce the award. And the quality of your evidence, which is the one part you control: see what evidence you need.
Questions people ask
Can you give me a rough figure now?
No, and neither should anyone else before seeing your medical evidence. We can tell you whether a specialist firm is likely to take the claim on, which is the more useful answer at this stage.
My friend got a certain amount for the same thing.
Their financial losses, recovery and circumstances were different. The injury element is only part of it.
Is compensation taxed?
Personal injury compensation is not normally subject to income tax, though interest on investments you make with it would be. Take your own advice on tax.
Tell us what happened
We assess your enquiry free of charge and, with your consent, refer good claims to a specialist personal injury firm, which decides whether to take your case on. We receive a referral payment from that firm, paid out of the fee it earns; under our agreement it must not increase the success fee you are charged.
Sources for this page: Administration of Justice (Scotland) Act 1982, sections 8 and 9; Success Fee Agreements (Scotland) Regulations 2020, regulation 2; Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018, section 6; Judicial College Guidelines, 18th edition, 9th April 2026; Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997; Civil Liability Act 2018, Part 1 (England and Wales).