Veterans and ex-service professionals who have served in the armed forces since 1987 will soon be able to successfully claim for hearing loss suffered during their service, thanks to a landmark High Court agreement reached this week with the Ministry of Defence (MoD). This has opened the door for as many as 10,000 claims for historical hearing loss from ex-servicemen and women to be heard.
The MoD has a duty of care to protect the health and wellbeing of serving military professionals, and has paid out £72million in 9,000 hearing loss claims made for people who had served between 2012 and 2020, but had always argued that historical hearing loss could not be proven to be as a direct result of noise exposure during service, and that the claims had been made too late. Now a landmark agreement has changed the MoD position, and it is thought that the incoming Labour Government will not alter this stance.
Hearing protection not strictly enforced
Military professionals are exposed to several sources of extreme noise during their career, even in training and drill situations. However, in combat they can be exposed to rifles, grenades, machine guns, anti-tank missiles, mortars and bombs, while the passing roar of military vehicles and helicopters can also be constant. Hearing protection has been issued to the military since the 1970s, but not strictly enforced, the argument being that it is often deemed impractical when carrying out operations whilst wearing other protective equipment, and hearing protection is not likely to be prioritised when in an immediate combat situation.
This has led to veterans’ careers ending prematurely, and ex-service professionals subsequently being denied further employment opportunities through being medically unfit. Hearing loss can also impact on someone’s personal life, meaning the transition back to civilian life can be extremely challenging, notwithstanding the standard difficulties a veteran would normally face when leaving the armed forces.
Now the MoD has accepted its historical duty of care and abandoned its opposition to claims made dating as far back as 1987. This is when the law was changed which suspended legal immunity for the Government, so only claims for people who have served at some point since 1987 will now be accepted. Some of these cases are expected to go to trial in 2025 and will be used to determine a precedent compensation figure upon which future claims will be based. After that, new claims should be settled more quickly and shouldn’t require the need for court action, as long as historical hearing loss can be directly attributed to having served in the armed forces.
Expert military claims solicitors
Military claims are a specialist area of the law, and at Ison Harrison we have this covered via our expert military claims solicitor Diane Askwith. Diane welcomed this new agreement and commented: “This is a long overdue agreement and it is great news for the thousands of ex-service professionals out there who have hearing loss claims outstanding. The transition back to civilian life can be daunting and stressful, and this can help to improve a veteran’s health and wellbeing considerably. It has always been disappointing that the MoD has taken this stance, given that it only takes one incident of extreme noise exposure to cause long term severe hearing loss, and many veterans have been exposed to much more than that. We would encourage any veterans with historical hearing loss, and who have served since 1987, to come forward”.
Ison Harrison have a proven track record of successfully pursuing personal injury claims, and this includes for hearing loss in work-related scenarios. Military claims are an extension of this service and require specialist knowledge and experience, and you can be assured of the very best service from our military claims team, led by Diane Askwith. So contact our team today if you have suffered hearing loss as a result of military service, and have served since 1987.
