Optician Negligence Claims

Optician negligence is the failure of an optician to provide you with a ‘reasonable standard of care’.

All opticians have a duty to give you a high standard of treatment and to avoid causing you further harm. If they’ve failed to uphold this duty then your eyesight may have been damaged, which can have a serious effect on your quality of life as well as your mental health.

If you or a loved one has been harmed because of a mistake, misdiagnosis or negligent treatment by an optician, then we know how unfair and frustrating this can be. An expert solicitor can help you get the compensation you need to cover the costs of your injury, as well as the wider impact it’s had on your life.

If you’re interested in making a claim, would like to find out more, or need clarification on whether you could make a case, you can get in touch with a trained legal adviser for free on 0800 234 6438 – or you can fill in one of the secure contact forms on this page and they’ll call you back.

Because the eyes are such a delicate part of the body, even a small medical mistake can cause permanent damage to your sight. We’ve listed some of the main types of optician negligence below:

• Misdiagnosis: If your optician has incorrectly diagnosed you with a different condition, then you may have received the wrong treatment causing further damage.
• Failure to diagnose an eye problem: Your optician might have completely overlooked an eye condition which could have led to delayed treatment and your condition becoming worse.
• Delaying further treatment: In some cases, your optician might recommend that you delay or postpone your eye treatment. If they fail to recognise that it’s important to treat you right away, then this might count as negligence.

Another common example of negligence is the wrong strength of glasses or contact lenses being prescribed. Over time, this can damage your eyesight – you may then need corrective surgery to get your vision back to how it was, although in severe cases the damage can be permanent.

As well as affecting your ability to see, optician negligence can also lead to complications such as:

• Headaches and/or migraines
• Dry eyes
• Eye strain
• Poor night vision
• Double vision

No matter what type of eye injury you’ve suffered, we may be able to help you claim if it was caused by an optician’s negligence and you first realised you received negligent treatment within the last three years.

Laser eye surgery is becoming increasingly common. The procedure involves cutting open the cornea and reshaping it using a laser, and it’s usually very effective.

In most cases, everything goes smoothly. But sometimes mistakes do happen – either during the treatment or because of a bad recommendation from your optician. The consequences of a mistake can be serious – for example, it could cause an astigmatism, limited night vision, dry eyes or permanent damage to your eyesight.

There’s no doubt about it – we rely on our eyesight every day, and if your vision has been affected by negligence then it can truly be life-changing.

Eye damage may have affected your ability to work, drive, read and play sports or take part in hobbies. And on top of everything else, it can also have an impact on your mental health: causing depression, anxiety and a lack of confidence or self-esteem.

A trained legal adviser will be able to help you get access to the right personal injury solicitor for your case, and to make the process of claiming as simple and straightforward as possible. Importantly, they’ll leave you with the time and energy to focus on getting things back on track.

Your adviser will have the expertise to be able to let you know whether it’s likely you could make a compensation claim. And once they’ve put you in touch with one of their solicitors, you’ll receive the very best legal representation, and they will do most of the work on your behalf.

Almost all personal injury claims are made on a no win no fee basis. This takes the financial risk out of making a claim, as you’ll only need to pay your solicitor if your case is successful.

Simply put, this means you’ll never be left out of pocket or with a bill you can’t afford: if your case is unsuccessful, your legal costs will be covered by ATE insurance taken out by your solicitor on your behalf.

If you do win your case and receive your compensation, you’ll pay your solicitor as a percentage of the money you receive. But you can rest assured that this will be a relatively small amount, so you’ll have the compensation you need for your recovery.

The first step to making an optician negligence claim is to get in touch with a trained legal adviser for free on 0800 234 6438. When you speak to them, they’ll ask you some questions about the treatment you received and the effect it’s had. They’ll then be able to let you know whether they think you have a case.

At this point, there’s no obligation to go any further, but if you do decide you’d like to go ahead, the adviser can pass you on to one of their partner solicitors for a further free chat.

When making your case, your solicitor will look to prove that your eye injury was caused by your optician – one of the ways they might do this is by gathering evidence of the treatment you received and comparing it with the actions of other opticians to see whether they would have done things differently.