Military Claims

Wolferstans’ specialist lawyers will be happy to advise you whether there is enough evidence for you to be able to make a claim. We will meet with you, talk with you on the telephone or email you about whether your case would benefit from further investigation and whether we are able to help.

To claim compensation for injury, disease or illness, you must show that this was caused at least in part by the negligence of another.

If your accident happened whilst you were serving, this will often be the MOD (not the colleagues you were working with at the time) or a third party engaged by the MOD to provide services or equipment.

If your accident happened outside of work, your claim may be against another driver or a Highway Authority responsible for repairing the road, for example. Each case is different.

A claim for compensation must normally be started within 3 years of the date of an accident that causes injury. There are exceptions, but it is important to seek advice as soon as possible.

As well as accident claims, Wolferstans also has a specialist team that deals with deafness and other industrial disease arising out of service. Special rules apply in respect of time limits. If you think this may be relevant to you, please enquire.

Even if you think you may be out of time, you should call us to seek advice. The rules depend on the individual case. We will be able to advise you whether you are out of time and whether there may be some way forward despite this.

Yes. You may have been told that you are not allowed to make a claim for negligence until after you have left the service. This is not correct and can lead to injured personnel being out of time for making a claim.

There is an important exception specific to the Armed Forces when it may not be possible to make a claim. This is the principle of “Combat Immunity”.

Combat immunity means that proceedings cannot normally be brought for injuries caused in the theatre of war. However, there have been recent inroads into this principle which means the issue is not always this clear cut.

A key point to understand is that there is a distinction between decisions taken on the battlefield and those taken in Whitehall. As an example, decisions in respect of procurement of equipment and training can fall outside of this principle.

Our specialist military solicitors have the experience and up-to-date expertise to accurately advise on whether the principle of combat immunity applies to your claim.

We will not be able to give you an answer immediately. It will be necessary to assess the impact that your injury has on your personal life and armed forces career before we are able to say how much you should receive.

Our military claims team will be able to advise you at the beginning whether your claim is worth pursuing and will attempt to give a realistic indication of the level of compensation that is potentially available as soon as possible.

There are two main types of compensation when pursuing a civil injury claim, covering your pain and suffering and any financial losses you have experienced or expect to experience in future due to your injuries.

Compensation for pain and suffering

We will obtain reports from medical experts who can tell us the extent of your injury and whether you will make a full recovery or whether your condition may deteriorate in the future. If your injury is serious, we may need to obtain evidence from several experts.

We will then advise you how much compensation you are likely to receive for pain and suffering. We will do this by comparing your injuries with cases that have been decided by the Court in the past. This will allow us to get an idea of how much a Judge will order the defendant to pay if the case goes to Trial.

Financial Losses

We will help you to work out what financial losses you have suffered. If your career is cut short, or promotion is delayed, this could substantially affect your pay and pension, both during and after service. We will take into consideration any allowances and enhanced pay that may apply.

We will also be able to claim in respect of any benefits of service that you lose, for example, the cost of free health and dental care. Our military solicitors can instruct trusted experts who will be able to work this out for you.

We will also advise you in respect of other losses that you can claim, such as aids and equipment and adaptations to your home, care provided by family members and commercial care, where appropriate. We will advise you in respect of other reasonable expenses.

We will investigate these losses for you and prepare a list. We will try to reach an agreement with the Defendant in respect of those losses or present your case in this regard to the Court.

You can make a civil claim at the same time as applying for an award under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) or War Pension Scheme. This is something we usually recommend as injury awards under the AFCS are tariff based and you may be awarded more by a Civil Court. There may also be losses which you cannot recover under the AFCS.

It is worth noting that the law does not allow “double recovery”, so if you are awarded compensation under the AFCS this will be offset against any other claim that you make.

We would advise you not to wait until the result of your Application under AFCS is known before making a civil claim as this could result in you being out of time in making a civil claim.

This is a common concern, but not something that should ever put you off making a claim as there are various options to help you cover the cost of claiming military injury compensation, no matter your circumstances.

The most important thing to realise is that, if your claim is successful, the defendant will pay most of our fees and expenses.

There are various ways of funding your military claim. The most common are:

Conditional Fee Agreement – This is commonly known as a “No Win, No Fee” agreement and means we will not charge you anything upfront to start a claim and our fees will only apply if we win compensation for you. We represent most of our clients on a “No Win, No Fee” basis and, where this option is available, it may be the best option for you.

Legal Expenses Insurance – You may have insurance for legal costs through an existing policy, such as your home contents or motor insurance. If you have specialist Armed Forces insurance, PAX, for example, legal expenses may be covered. We will check whether you have any such cover and, if you do, will contact the insurance company for you, to see whether there is any advantage in using that insurance to fund the cost of your case. You can choose to instruct the firm you want, even if it is not on the insurance companies’ panel.

Paying privately – You can pay privately if you wish and have the funds available to do so.

It is really important to think about what you will do with any compensation you receive to make sure you get the most out of the funds you receive. We can advise you on the various options for managing military injury compensation.

Protecting your means-tested benefits

If you receive an award of compensation, that may affect your entitlement to means-tested benefits and put them at risk. You can protect your entitlement to your benefits by setting up a Personal Injury Trust at the end of the case. We have a specialist team of trusts solicitors who will be happy to advise you in this regard.

Investing your compensation

Where you have received substantial compensation, you will usually need to invest the funds to make sure they maintain their value in line with inflation over the years. Investing your compensation requires thought and often specialist advice. We can refer you to an appropriate advisor on request.