Armed forces

The British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are in constant contact with dangerous and heavy equipment and may have to handle it in hostile environments. There exists the opportunity for accidents whilst moving equipment. Where appropriate military personnel must undergo training to ensure that the movement of this equipment is carried out as quickly and safely as possible. It is not uncommon for armed forces personnel to find themselves with equipment that is defective or not fit for purpose. As a result, these situations can lead to multiple injuries and even death. The military provides legal experts who are available, however, they are paid for by the relevant ministerial department and hence have a degree of allegiance to their paymasters.

 

The most common types of injury are those sustained from: -

• Traffic accidents;
• Training;
• Firing ranges; and
• Aircraft accidents.

 

These can cause injuries ranging from hearing loss/ tinnitus, brain damage, PTSD, whiplash etc. If you developed tinnitus symptoms or hearing loss during or after you served in the armed forces, and you were not protected from the risk of hearing loss, then you could claim compensation. You can even claim if you are no longer serving in the military, or it has been many years since you did.

 

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) must take reasonable care of their service personnel's health and safety. Whether in combat, training or within a military establishment and the MoD has a responsibility to try to prevent personal injury or illness occurring.

 

How we can help

One of the issues with such injuries is proving fault, sometimes this is obvious, sometimes it is simply an accident. The criteria for a claim depends on proving an element of negligence, as many of the activities carry an inherent risk this can be tricky, slipping on a rock while on patrol would be considered an acceptable risk, being injured due to defective equipment would not. As with any such claim proving negligence is the key. To inform our legal team of specifics it would be very helpful to include photographic evidence of the cause (if appropriate please place a bank card / coin beside the cause and photograph, this will give your caseworker something of scale).

 

Your legal team will examine the situation and make suitable recommendations, if they feel the case has merits then they will suggest appointing a medical consultant to assess your situation, they are privately contracted by us (and therefore their cost would be classed as a disbursement). To quantify the potential claim in regard to mental trauma we would suggest an additional report from our psychological team.

 

To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by taking advantage of our free consultation service, activated by the link at the top of the page, should you wish to start a case the caseworker will send you the suitable payment link.

 

The claim will consider two types of damages:

• General damages- this compensates the victim for the pain and suffering endured, and for the loss of enjoyment of life as a result of the negligent act.
• Special damages- this compensates the victim for any personal costs incurred as a result of the negligent act. It can also cover any additional costs required in the future such as remedial surgery to remedy the mistake, mental suffering and so on.

 

Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our legal team and medical consultant and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.