Personal Injury Solicitors Greater Manchester
Injury Law Specialists provides access to personal injury solicitors acting for clients across Greater Manchester, from Manchester and Salford at the centre, through Bolton, Wigan, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury to the north and west, to Stockport, Altrincham and Sale in the prosperous commuter and airport south. If you have been injured in an accident that may have been caused by someone else’s negligence, we can review what happened and explain whether you may have grounds to pursue compensation.
Greater Manchester is not one place. It is a city region of nearly three million people in which the M60 runs a complete orbital around Manchester with the M62, the M56 and the M61 converging on it and the M6, the M58, the M61 and the M62 all meeting within a few miles of Wigan. It holds the world's former centre of the cotton industry and one of the most heavily mined districts in England, some of the largest hospitals and two major universities, the biggest concentration of media employment outside London, a tram network among the largest in the country, genuine docks and canal frontage running through densely populated areas, and moorland rising immediately behind the northern towns.
- Free initial claim assessment
- No Win No Fee may be available
- Clients throughout England & Wales
- 30+ years' collective legal experience
Three parts of Greater Manchester, three claim profiles
- The city and the northern boroughsManchester, Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury
- The western coalfield and the distribution townsBolton, Wigan and the western approaches
- The commuter and airport southStockport, Altrincham and Sale
We help clients in Greater Manchester. We do not have an office in the city region and we do not claim to.
Can I make a personal injury claim in Greater Manchester?
Yes, if you were injured in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence anywhere in Greater Manchester. Personal injury solicitors acting for clients in the city region assess whether there are grounds to claim, investigate the evidence, instruct medical experts and negotiate with the insurer on your behalf. Whether a claim can be taken on depends on the circumstances, the evidence and when the accident happened, not on where in the city region you live.
What makes Greater Manchester claims different
Five things account for a large share of the cases we see from clients in this city region, and each of them arises here more than it does in most places.
The M60, the M62, the M56 and the M61 converging around one city
Greater Manchester carries traffic no city region of its size in England generates on its own. The M60 runs a complete orbital around Manchester, the M62 crosses east to west toward Leeds and Liverpool, the M56 carries traffic toward Chester and the M6 and the airport, the M61 runs north west toward Preston, and the M6, M58, M61 and M62 all converge within a few miles of Wigan. At the same time the region holds one of the largest tram networks in the country, a very high proportion of private hire vehicle, delivery, bus and cycling movement, and a road network where the motorway, the trunk road and the ordinary built up street run into one another. The collision profile that produces is different from a rural county: a high share of collisions take place at junctions, at merges and at crossing points, in congestion and in queuing traffic, they frequently involve several vehicles rather than one at-fault driver, and a large proportion involve drivers or vehicles based well outside the region. In multi vehicle collisions it is worth taking advice early, because establishing how responsibility divides between several drivers takes investigation, and where the other driver was uninsured or untraced a claim through the Motor Insurers' Bureau may be possible.
Cotton, mining and engineering trades that ran through works since closed
Greater Manchester was the centre of the world's cotton industry and one of the most heavily mined districts in England, with bleaching, dyeing, finishing, paper making, printing, chemical, plastics and precision engineering alongside it. Almost all of that work involved exposure over years to cotton and other textile dust, coal and rock dust, oil mist, solvent vapour, ink and coating fumes, paper dust and noise and vibration. Conditions of that kind develop over decades rather than weeks. A date of knowledge element runs through these cases: the three year limitation period may run from when you first knew or should have known about the condition rather than from the exposure itself, so an old exposure is not necessarily a closed door, and it is worth asking specifically when that point was reached in your case. There is a practical difficulty too. This work ran through mills, pits and works that have since closed, been demolished, converted into flats or changed hands several times, so employment records can be sparse and establishing the correct employer can take work. Keeping any payslip, contract, works document or photograph you still have is worth doing now rather than later.
Hospitals, universities and an exceptional health and social care concentration
Greater Manchester has a very large hospital and healthcare base, including the regional and specialist centres around Manchester, Salford Royal, Stepping Hill, Fairfield and the Royal Oldham and Rochdale, two major universities, and a genuinely large life sciences and research sector. That produces a substantial share of local workplace claims, and they are not the factory injuries people usually picture. Claims from healthcare and care work commonly involve moving and handling injuries from moving patients and service users and from lifting where hoists, slide sheets and other equipment were unavailable or unsuitable, slips and trips in corridors, kitchens, bathrooms and wet areas, sharps and clinical waste, aggression and violence from patients, service users or members of the public, exposure to infection and hazardous substances, and injuries sustained while travelling between visits or lone working. Rochdale's domiciliary and residential care sector produces a particularly high proportion of these. University and laboratory work brings chemical, biological and solvent exposure, and the office, media, digital and education employment the city region is built on brings a steady volume of slips, trips, manual handling, equipment and display screen injuries. All of these are risks the employer is expected to assess and manage rather than unavoidable features of the job, and the assessments, training records, staffing levels, equipment records and incident reports usually become the central evidence.
Canal, dock and river frontage inside a dense city region
Manchester has more canal miles than almost any English city. The Bridgewater, Rochdale, Ashton and Leigh canals, the Manchester Ship Canal and the Castlefield and Salford Quays basins give the city region genuine open water, docks, quaysides, locks, bridge structures and towpaths running through densely populated areas, and the Mersey, Irwell, Roch, Goyt, Tame, Medlock and Bollin add river banks and valleys alongside them. Salford Quays is an area where the water is surrounded by public routes, bridges and steps in constant use. Those surfaces raise fall and injury claims quite unlike an inland town: unsupported edges, steps down to water, uneven and often unlit towpaths, vegetation and root growth, seasonal flooding, and locks and bridges whose moving or worn parts present their own hazards. Identifying who is responsible is often the first step, because a canal towpath is frequently the responsibility of the Canal and River Trust, a dock or quay may belong to a port operator or a private owner, and a river bank, a public footway and a private forecourt may each have a different responsible body. It is also worth knowing that where an injury happens on the water, on a vessel or in the course of dock or marine work, different time limits and different courts can apply from the ordinary land based rules, so advice should be taken quickly.
One of the largest tram networks in the country, and a heavy rail interchange
Greater Manchester has one of the largest light rail systems in the country, running out from the city centre to Salford, Eccles, Altrincham, Sale, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Ashton and the airport, alongside heavy rail services through Piccadilly, Victoria, Oxford Road, Deansgate, Stockport, Bolton, Wigan and Rochdale and very heavy bus and private hire use. Passenger claims from that network are a distinct category, and they are not treated as ordinary road claims. Where an injury happens on board a tram, a bus or a train, on a platform or during boarding or alighting, the claim is usually brought against the operator rather than a road user, and different time limits and a different process can apply. The common patterns are slips, trips and falls on wet, contaminated or leaf covered platform and step surfaces and on board while a vehicle is moving or braking, falls on staircases and at changes of level, injuries in crowds, being caught in closing doors, and accidents at the platform edge. Those claims turn on the operator's own incident report and CCTV, which is often overwritten within weeks, so it is worth reporting the incident to staff at the time and noting the route, the vehicle number, the time and the stop. Stockport station and the Piccadilly, Victoria and Oxford Road interchanges carry particularly heavy passenger numbers.
How claims differ across Greater Manchester
The city region divides into three recognisably different areas when it comes to how accidents happen.
The city and the northern boroughs
Manchester, Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury
The regional centre and the Pennine edge towns around it, on the M60, M62, M602 and M66, with universities, major hospitals, media, textiles, engineering and moorland immediately behind them.
Manchester, Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury cover the city itself and the northern half of the conurbation. Manchester is the largest city in the north of England, with the M60 orbited around it and the M62, M56 and M61 converging on it, an extensive tram network, two major universities, a very large hospital and life sciences base and a heavily redeveloped centre that still holds genuine industrial fabric in Ancoats, Castlefield and the Northern Quarter. Salford sits immediately to the west, with the Quays and the docks presenting open water and quayside edges in the middle of a city, the largest concentration of media and broadcasting employment outside London, and some of the biggest regeneration sites in the north. Oldham, Rochdale and Bury form the Pennine edge, each a great cotton town with substantial manufacturing still working alongside a major hospital and, in Rochdale, one of the largest health and social care concentrations in Greater Manchester, with the moors rising immediately behind the built up area. What the five share is an economy built on professional, digital, media, academic, healthcare and manufacturing employment, road networks that carry exceptional volumes of freight and commuter traffic, and centres where older industrial fabric sits alongside new public realm.
Towns in this area
The western coalfield and the distribution towns
Bolton, Wigan and the western approaches
Textiles and engineering over extensively mined ground, with very large logistics and fulfilment operations clustered around the M6, M58, M61 and M62.
Bolton and Wigan cover the western side of the conurbation. Bolton is a large manufacturing and engineering town with a deep cotton spinning, weaving, bleaching and finishing heritage alongside a substantial paper, packaging and automotive components base, with the M61 running past it between Manchester and Preston and the West Pennine Moors rising immediately to the north west. Wigan sits within reach of four motorways at once, the M6, the M58, the M61 and the M62, which has made it a genuine freight and distribution hub as well as a commuter town, with very large warehousing and fulfilment operations built on the back of it and one of the deepest coal mining heritages in the region alongside its cotton weaving past. What the two share is that the ground beneath them was worked for coal, clay, stone and ash for generations, so subsidence genuinely affects the condition of roads, paths, kerbs and thresholds; that both were built on textile and engineering trades that ran through many mills and works that have since closed or changed hands; and that both now carry very heavy freight and distribution traffic through and around them.
Towns in this area
The commuter and airport south
Stockport, Altrincham and Sale
Prosperous commuter towns between the M60, the M56 and Manchester Airport, with a major hospital, engineering works, a nationally known market and one of the busiest road corridors in the north west.
Stockport, Altrincham and Sale cover the south of the conurbation, and they are the most prosperous and most heavily commuter driven part of it. Stockport sits at the meeting point of the M60, the M56 and the A6, with one of the busiest rail interchange stations in the north west, a major hospital at Stepping Hill, substantial engineering and machine tool manufacturing, and a genuinely steep town centre around the Market Place and the Underbanks that is being substantially rebuilt. Altrincham is a market town with a nationally known market and food and drink scene immediately south of Manchester Airport, between the M56 and the M60. Sale is a large suburban town built around the A56, carrying an exceptional volume of commuter, airport and freight traffic through ordinary built up streets, with one of the largest commuter populations in the north west. What the three share is an economy resting on professional, office, retail, hospitality and airport related employment, very large numbers of residents who work outside the town they live in, and centres carrying heavy footfall on surfaces that mix old paving with recent regeneration.
Towns in this area
Who we help in Greater Manchester
The claimants we act for most often in this county, with the page that explains each in more detail.
All the Greater Manchester towns we cover
Each page below covers the local accident mix, the roads and the connections that shape it, and how a claim works in that area. Every one includes a map of the area covered.
The Greater Manchester area we cover
We help clients across the whole of Greater Manchester. The map below shows the city region, and you can open it in Google Maps to explore the towns and roads mentioned on this page.
We help clients in Greater Manchester. We do not have a physical office in the city region and we do not claim to. Our registered address is Unit 16, Titan Court, Laporte Way, Luton, England, LU4 8EF, which is a registered and administrative address only. Injury Law Specialists is a marketing and advertising platform and is not a law firm or a provider of regulated legal services. All personal injury legal advice, casework and representation arranged through Injury Law Specialists are provided by MB Solicitors, a trading name of MB Legal Solicitors Ltd, regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA ID 8000764.
Where to find out more
Frequently asked questions about personal injury claims in Greater Manchester
Do you have an office in Greater Manchester?
No. We do not have a physical office anywhere in Greater Manchester, and we do not claim to. Injury Law Specialists is a marketing and advertising platform rather than a law firm, and our registered address is in Luton. We provide access to personal injury solicitors who act for clients across the whole city region, and cases are handled by telephone, email, WhatsApp and video call. Where a meeting is genuinely needed, a client can be seen at a convenient location rather than being asked to travel to us.
How long do I have to make a personal injury claim in Greater Manchester?
For many claims the general limitation period is three years from the date of the accident, or from your later date of knowledge where that applies. Different rules can apply to children, to people who lack mental capacity, and to fatal accident and criminal injury claims. The date of knowledge point matters particularly here, because the cotton, coal mining, bleaching, chemical, engineering, paper and printing trades that built this city region exposed people over years to textile dust, coal and rock dust, oil mist, solvent vapour, ink and coating fumes and noise, and conditions of that kind develop over decades. The three year period may run from when you first knew or should have known rather than from the exposure itself, so an old exposure is not necessarily a closed door, and it is worth asking specifically when that point was reached in your case. There is also a practical point about evidence: this is one of the busiest urban environments in England, so CCTV on trams, buses, in shops, in stations and on city centre streets is routinely overwritten within weeks, and the faster a fall or a collision is reported and photographed the easier it is to establish what the surface or the scene was like on the day.
Can I claim if I was injured in a collision on the M60, the M62, the M56 or the M61?
Yes, if another road user's negligence caused your injuries. Greater Manchester carries the M60 orbital around the city with the M62, the M56 and the M61 converging on it, and the M6, the M58 and the M61 all meeting within a few miles of Wigan, so the motorway and trunk network here carries a volume of freight, distribution, commuter and cross Pennine traffic exceptional even by national standards, and a great deal of it is long distance rather than local. That produces a collision profile dominated by congestion, junction and merge conflicts, sudden braking and lane changing, often involving several vehicles rather than a single at-fault driver. Evidence usually comes from the police report, the vehicle damage and your medical records, along with any dash camera footage, and where the other driver was uninsured or untraced a claim through the Motor Insurers' Bureau may be possible. In multi vehicle collisions it is worth taking advice early, because establishing how responsibility divides between several drivers takes investigation.
Can I claim for an injury on a tram, a bus or a train in Greater Manchester?
Yes, where the operator failed to take reasonable care over the vehicle, the platform, the steps, the surface or the boarding arrangements, and that caused your injury. Greater Manchester has one of the largest tram networks in the country alongside heavy rail services and very heavy bus and private hire use, and passenger claims from that network are treated as a distinct category rather than as ordinary road claims: where an injury happens on board a tram, a bus or a train, on a platform or during boarding or alighting, the claim is usually brought against the operator rather than a road user, and different time limits and a different process can apply from an ordinary land based claim. The common patterns are slips, trips and falls on wet, contaminated or leaf covered platform and step surfaces and on board while the vehicle is moving or braking, falls on staircases and at changes of level, injuries in crowds, being caught in closing doors, and accidents at the platform edge. Those claims turn on the operator's own incident report and CCTV, which is often overwritten within weeks, so it is worth reporting the incident to staff at the time and noting the route, the vehicle number, the time and the stop you were at.
Can I claim for an injury at work in one of Greater Manchester's hospitals, care settings or universities?
Yes, where the injury was caused by unsafe working conditions, inadequate training, defective or unsuitable equipment, an unsafe system of work or a failure to assess and manage a known risk. The city region has a very large hospital and healthcare base, a genuinely substantial health and social care sector including residential and domiciliary care, and two major universities with laboratory and research facilities. Claims from that work commonly involve moving and handling injuries from moving patients and service users and from lifting where hoists, slide sheets and other equipment were unavailable or unsuitable, slips and trips in corridors, kitchens, bathrooms and wet areas, sharps and clinical waste, aggression and violence from patients, service users or members of the public, exposure to infection, chemicals, solvents and biological materials, and injuries sustained while travelling between visits or lone working. Those are risks the employer is expected to assess and manage rather than unavoidable features of the job, and the moving and handling assessments, training records, staffing levels, equipment records, COSHH assessments and incident reports usually become the central evidence. It is worth reporting the incident and keeping your own note of what happened, who was present and what equipment was provided.
Can I claim for a condition caused by dust, fume, solvent or noise exposure at work?
It may be possible, and it depends on the exposure, the duration and the medical evidence, so it needs individual advice. Greater Manchester was the centre of the world's cotton industry and one of the most heavily mined districts in England, with bleaching, dyeing, finishing, paper making, printing, chemical, plastics and precision engineering alongside it, and all of that work involved exposure over years to textile dust, coal and rock dust, oil mist, solvent vapour, ink and coating fumes, paper dust, and noise and vibration. Claims of this kind are usually brought on the basis of the employer's failure to control a known hazard and to provide suitable protective equipment and health surveillance, and they turn on the employer's records: dust, lint and fume extraction and ventilation, exposure monitoring, hearing tests, vibration records and the provision of protection. Because these conditions develop over years or decades, the date of knowledge rules are central, so it is worth taking advice even if the exposure was a long time ago, and even if the pit, the mill or the works closed many years ago. Where the employer has changed hands since, that does not by itself prevent a claim.
Can I claim for a fall on a canal towpath, at Salford Quays or in a city centre?
Yes, where the body responsible for that surface, structure or edge failed to maintain it to a reasonable standard, or failed to take reasonable steps to deal with a hazard it knew or should have known about, and that caused your fall. Manchester has more canal miles than almost any English city, and the Bridgewater, Rochdale, Ashton and Leigh canals, the Manchester Ship Canal and the Salford Quays and Castlefield basins give the city region genuine docks, quaysides, locks, bridges and towpaths running through densely populated areas. Those surfaces present unsupported edges, steps down to water, uneven and often unlit towpaths, vegetation and root growth and seasonal flooding, and the city's centres combine older industrial fabric in Ancoats, Castlefield and the Northern Quarter with heavily rebuilt modern public realm, all carrying exceptional footfall. A highway authority or occupier is not liable for every uneven surface, but it is expected to operate a reasonable system of inspection and repair. Identifying who is responsible is often the first step, because a canal towpath is frequently the responsibility of the Canal and River Trust, a dock or quay may belong to a port operator or a private owner, and a river bank, a public footway and a private forecourt may each have a different responsible body. Where the injury happened on the water, on a vessel or in the course of dock or marine work, different time limits and different courts can apply, so advice should be taken quickly.
Does subsidence affect a claim in Bolton, Wigan or the west of Greater Manchester?
It can, and it is worth knowing about before you assume there is nothing to pursue. The ground across the western side of the conurbation was worked for coal, clay, stone and ash on an industrial scale for generations, and worked ground can move and can affect structures, surfaces and the level of footways, kerbs and thresholds, including surfaces where the ground history is not obvious. What that means in law is not that the presence of old workings makes anybody automatically liable. It means that a body responsible for a surface or a structure may need to show that it took reasonable care to inspect and to identify a defect, and the fact that a defect developed where a normal inspection cycle would not have expected it can itself be a relevant point. Because the pattern of working and the exact location of shafts and galleries is not always easy to reconstruct, a subsidence element in a claim is usually something to investigate rather than something to assume, and early advice is worthwhile where there is no obvious other explanation for a defect.
Can I claim if I was injured walking on the moors above Oldham, Rochdale or Bury?
It depends what happened, and where. Where the body responsible for a path, a trail, a step, a bridge, a boardwalk, a gate or a stile failed to maintain it to a reasonable standard, or failed to take reasonable steps to deal with a hazard it knew or should have known about, and that caused your fall, a claim may be possible. The Pennine moors, Saddleworth Moor, the West Pennine Moors and the hills around Rivington, Ramsbottom and Todmorden rise immediately behind the northern towns and are in very heavy public use for walking, cycling and horse riding, on surfaces that are steep, uneven, rutted, peaty and muddy by their nature. What that does not mean is that every fall on a moor is somebody's fault: gradients, rough ground, roots, rock, bog and mud are the whole point of the moors, and the responsible body is not expected to smooth them or fence them off. The question in a claim is whether a specific, identifiable hazard that should have been dealt with, such as a broken bridge or boardwalk, a collapsed path edge, a damaged gate or stile or a missing sign at a genuine and non obvious danger, caused the injury. Identifying who is responsible is often the first step, because land up there is held by a mixture of local authorities, water companies, United Utilities, the National Trust and private landowners.
How much compensation could I receive for an injury in Greater Manchester?
There is no figure that can be applied to an injury by name, and anyone offering one without seeing your medical evidence is guessing. Compensation has two parts: general damages for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity the injury itself has caused, and special damages for the financial losses it has produced, such as lost earnings, treatment, rehabilitation, care and travel. The total depends on the medical evidence, the effect on your life, your age and circumstances and the losses you have suffered. Our page on personal injury compensation explains how both parts are assessed in more detail.
Will I have to attend court in Greater Manchester?
Most personal injury claims settle through negotiation without any hearing, so attending court is uncommon. Where proceedings are issued, the case is usually dealt with at a court convenient for where you live, and the city region has substantial court centres at Manchester, Salford, Stockport, Bolton, Wigan, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury, with the Manchester Civil Justice Centre the principal centre for larger and more complex cases. Where a hearing is needed, we explain what is involved and what to expect well in advance.
Can I claim on a No Win No Fee basis in Greater Manchester?
Suitable cases may be accepted under a Conditional Fee Agreement, commonly called No Win No Fee, subject to an assessment of liability, the evidence, the prospects of success and proportionality. If the claim does not succeed you generally do not pay our basic legal fees, and if it does a success fee may be payable. In many personal injury claims the applicable legal cap is 25% of the relevant categories of damages including VAT, although the actual deduction and funding arrangements depend upon the agreement and your circumstances. These terms are explained in full before you decide whether to proceed.
Not sure whether you have a personal injury claim in Greater Manchester?
You do not need to understand the law before contacting us, and you do not need to travel. Tell us briefly what happened and a member of our team can review the information and explain the possible next steps. There is no charge for an initial assessment and no obligation to proceed.
Free initial assessment. No Win No Fee may be available, subject to assessment.