For many years, The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has opposed claims made by veterans experiencing hearing loss, arguing other sources of noise were to blame, individuals should have worn protection or their claims were too late.
However, the MoD has now accepted exposure to noise in the military has been a cause of hearing loss and that people discharged after 1987 could be eligible for compensation.
Claims for Noise Induced Hearing Loss can include symptoms such as tinnitus and struggling to understand people when there is background noise, along with the more obvious loss of hearing. This can be as a result of exposure to loud noises such as gunfire and bombing.
In order to be successful in bringing a claim, you need to establish the following:-
- That you were owed a duty of care, and that duty was breached. The MoD have accepted that they owed veterans a duty of care. You would need to argue that the duty of care had been breached by the MoD not providing adequate protection to avoid NIHL;
- You need to prove that your NIHL has resulted from your career in the military. Your overall career history and/or hobbies may affect how easy it is to determine (on the balance of probabilities) that your NIHL has resulted from your military career rather than from anything else.
- You must also have served in the military at some point after 1987, when a change in the law suspended legal immunity for the government in cases involving service personnel.
If you would like to discuss a potential claim, contact us today. We’re on your side.