Veterans who lost their hearing during service settle claims for £700k

FORMER British Army servicemen have settled legal claims against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) over hearing loss suffered during their service for more than £700,000.

- CALLUM PARKE PA law reporter ELLIE GOSLEY Reporter

After the settlement one former British Army officer said there have been “failures to protect service personnel”.

Retired lieutenant colonel Andrew Davies, who served in the Royal Engineers for almost 40 years, said the settlement of his case for £182,250, announced at the High Court, “does finally acknowledge what I lost and provides some justice”.

Another former serviceman, Stephen Bainbridge, who now works for a Welsh council, agreed a settlement figure of £550,000.

A submission to the court said that during a tour of Afghanistan Mr Bainbridge was “under near-constant attack” for more than 100 days but was unable to use hearing protection as he needed to wear separate radio headsets in each ear.

The claims were due to be tried alongside four other “test cases”, the outcome of which would impact the cases of around 10,000 former personnel suing the MoD for compensation for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).

At the start of the trial, barrister Harry Steinberg KC said Mr Davies’ and Mr Bainbridge’s claims had been settled. Four other “test cases” are now being tried, the results of which could potentially open the door for thousands of former personnel to receive tens of thousands of pounds in compensation.

The trial of the test cases will decide which guidelines to use when diagnosing NIHL and how to value the future losses of earnings of former personnel who suffer from it.