Small claims personal injury limit

The small claims track has a headline limit of £10,000 — but a personal injury claim is measured against a second, much lower figure, and it is not always the £1,000 that gets quoted online.

Is the small claims limit for personal injury just £1,000?

No — that is a common oversimplification. The £1,000 figure under CPR rule 26.9 applies specifically to road traffic accident personal injury claims that fall within the low-value "whiplash" portal arrangements. For other road traffic accident injury claims, the figure is £5,000. For personal injury claims that do not arise from a road traffic accident at all — a slip, trip, or an injury at work, for example — the limit on the pain, suffering and loss of amenity element is £1,500, not £1,000. Always check which category your claim falls into before assuming a figure.

Does the £10,000 overall limit still apply if there's a personal injury element?

Yes, but it works alongside the injury-specific limit rather than instead of it. A claim with a personal injury element is only allocated to the small claims track if both the overall value of the claim is £10,000 or less and the personal injury element is within its own specific limit (£1,500 for non-road-traffic claims, or the relevant road traffic accident figure). If either limit is exceeded, the claim is likely to be allocated to the fast track instead, with different rules on costs and procedure.

What about housing disrepair claims with a personal injury-type element?

Housing disrepair claims have their own separate pair of limits under CPR rule 26.9: the cost of any repair or other remedial work must be £1,000 or less, and the value of any other damages claimed must also be £1,000 or less, for the claim to stay within the small claims track's disrepair provisions. This is a distinct set of limits from the personal injury figures, even though disrepair cases sometimes include a personal injury element as well.

Why does the small claims track limit personal injury claims differently from other claims?

The small claims track is designed for straightforward disputes that can be dealt with proportionately, often without legal representation, and generally without the loser paying the winner's legal costs. Personal injury claims can involve technical medical evidence and expert reports even when the sum involved is modest, so the rules set a lower threshold for the injury element specifically, to keep genuinely complex injury claims out of a track built for simplicity.

Can costs still be recovered if a personal injury small claim is lost?

The small claims track's general costs protection — meaning the winner usually cannot recover their legal costs from the loser beyond fixed, limited amounts — applies to claims allocated to the track, including those with a personal injury element within the limits described here. This is one of the reasons the injury-specific limits are set deliberately lower than the general £10,000 figure, to avoid cases needing expert medical evidence being decided under a costs regime built for simpler disputes.

Why there are two limits, not one

The small claims track exists to deal with lower-value, less complex disputes proportionately — often without a solicitor, and with the general protection that the losing side does not have to pay the winner's legal costs beyond modest, fixed amounts. The headline figure most people know is £10,000: the general limit on the overall value of a claim for it to stay on the small claims track rather than move to the fast track.

Personal injury claims complicate that picture, because even a modest-sounding injury claim can need expert medical evidence, which is a disproportionate burden for a track built around simplicity and no costs recovery. CPR rule 26.9 deals with this by applying a second, specific limit to the injury element of a claim, independent of the overall £10,000 figure. A claim can be within the general limit and still be kept off the small claims track if its injury element is too large.

The injury-specific figure itself is not a single number. For a personal injury claim arising from a road traffic accident that falls within the low-value "whiplash" claims portal arrangements, the limit is £1,000. For other road traffic accident personal injury claims outside that portal, the limit is £5,000. For a personal injury claim that does not arise from a road traffic accident at all — an injury at work, a slip or trip, an animal-related injury, and so on — the limit on the pain, suffering and loss of amenity element is £1,500. A claim that quotes a flat £1,000 figure for "personal injury claims" generally is describing only the narrowest of these three categories.

Housing disrepair claims sit alongside this under the same rule but with their own separate pair of limits: the cost of repair or remedial work must be £1,000 or less, and any other damages claimed must also be £1,000 or less. These figures apply regardless of whether a personal injury element is also present.

A warehouse worker slips on a wet floor that was not signposted and injures their wrist. They bring a claim for £1,200 pain, suffering and loss of amenity, plus £400 for a damaged phone and £300 in lost earnings — a total claim value of £1,900.

Within general £10,000 limit?

Not a road traffic accident

Pain, suffering and loss of amenity element

Within £1,500 non-RTA injury limit?

Yes — allocated to small claims track

Because the injury element of £1,200 is within the £1,500 limit that applies to non-road-traffic-accident personal injury claims, and the overall claim is comfortably under £10,000, the claim is allocated to the small claims track. Had the pain, suffering and loss of amenity element alone been £1,800, it would likely have been allocated to the fast track instead, even though the overall claim value was well under £10,000.

Civil Procedure Rules, rule 26.9

EX50 — civil and family court fees

Small Claims Personal Injury Limit — Small Claims Glossary

The real small claims track limits for personal injury claims — £1,500 for most injuries, £5,000 or £1,000 for road traffic accidents — and how they sit alongside the £10,000 general limit.