Former servicemen settle legal claims for more than £700,000 over hearing loss

A former British Army officer said there have been “failures to protect service personnel” as he and another former serviceman settled legal claims against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) over hearing loss suffered during their service for more than £700,000.

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”.

The 58-year-old’s claim was due to be tried on Wednesday 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’s case had been settled, and that of another former serviceman, Stephen Hambridge, had been settled for £550,000.

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 each.

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.

In a statement following the settlement, Mr Davies said: “I gave the military everything I had.

“Serving for nearly four decades was an honour and a privilege, but to be left with a permanent injury that could have been prevented has been incredibly hard to accept.

“The hearing loss has impacted my family, my social life and even medical care.

“Sadly, what happened to me isn’t unique, and I hope cases like mine shine a light on the failures to protect service personnel so that future soldiers don’t suffer in the same way.

“While the compensation cannot restore my hearing, it does finally acknowledge what I lost and provides some justice.”

In written submissions for the trial, Mr Steinberg said Mr Davies served in the Corps of Royal Engineers from 1983, aged 16, to 2022 and was deployed in the Falkland Islands, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan.

He was diagnosed with NIHL in service and was “medically downgraded” in 2011.

He has worn hearing aids since the age of 43 and also suffers from tinnitus, with the MoD admitting his hearing loss was caused during his service in August this year.

Mr Steinberg said Mr Davies was “exposed to excessive levels of noise during his military career” from weapons including stun grenades and pistols, and shell and mortar fire.

He said: “He constantly needs to ask his family to repeat themselves.

“When he goes out with his family, he relies on them to relay to him what other people have said. When he does not have a family member to assist him, he often finds ‘that I can miss critical words in a sentence and I then miss the context of the conversation … this is extremely frustrating’.”

Former rifleman and mortar fire controller Mr Hambridge, 46, served in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers after being inspired by his grandfather’s service in the Second World War, but now suffers from both hearing loss and tinnitus.

Mr Steinberg said Mr Hambridge enlisted in 1999, before transferring to the Royal Corps of Engineers in 2008.

He toured Afghanistan, Kosovo and Northern Ireland, but was also medically downgraded in 2011, and left service in 2012.

Mr Steinberg said: “He now finds it difficult to understand what is being said when he is out in pubs or restaurants in the presence of background noise.

“He needs to ask people to repeat themselves, which he finds embarrassing and frustrating.

“He often needs to pretend that he is following conversations.”

The barrister continued that during one tour of Afghanistan, Mr Hambridge was “under near-constant attack” for more than 100 days and on a second tour, “was involved in up to six contacts with the enemy per day”.

This involved the use of missiles, mortars, machine guns and other weapons, but Mr Hambridge was unable to use hearing protection as he needed to wear separate radio headsets in each ear.

He now works for a council in Wales but “is disadvantaged on the job market as a result of his hearing loss”, Mr Steinberg added.

The majority of the 10,000 claimants are represented by one law firm, Hugh James.

Simon Ellis, partner at the firm, said: “The settlements announced today represent a victory for our clients, and highlight the impact that hearing loss can have on the future earning potential of members of the armed forces.”

The four cases now being heard at the High Court are those of former Royal Marine Christopher Lambie, former infantryman Jack Craggs, former signaller David Lloyd and former rifleman and signaller Michael Evans.

All four suffer from hearing loss, while some also suffer from tinnitus.

At a hearing in July, lawyers for the MoD accepted that it had a “duty of care” towards personnel amid legal claims brought by former members of the armed forces who suffered from hearing loss, having disputed this in earlier legal action.

The agreement applies only to those who have served in regular or reserve armed forces since 1987, but does not apply to civilian military staff or cadets.

While the MoD accepts that noise exposure during service caused hearing loss among former personnel, it may dispute the extent to which this happened in individual cases.

The trial before Mr Justice Garnham is due to last nine weeks.