military compensation claims

Claiming Compensation

For Military Related

Illnesses And Diseases

When it comes to the legal obligations on employers to comply with health and safety legislation and make sure their employees have safe working conditions, the Ministry of Defence is no different from any other business. The overwhelming majority of service personnel in the UK are employed by the MoD, and if you are currently employed by the military you have the same protections under the UK’s extensive health and safety and working practice regulations as an employee in any other sort of occupation.

 

Many military personnel mistakenly believe that they cannot claim any compensation for a work related disease or illness while they are still serving. This is simply not the case. When thinking of claiming compensation for work related illnesses or disease it’s important to be aware of the strict time limits in place. You have just three years from the date of the illness if you are thinking of making a personal injury claim, and seven years for compensation claims made to the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme.

 

In the huge majority of cases, the Ministry of Defence as an employers has a duty of care towards its employees. There are a very few exceptions, and these are rare. Establishing duty of care is the first thing that has to be established when anyone is thinking about making a claim for compensation.

 

After establishing that your employer had a duty of care, the next thing to prove is that the employer was negligent in that duty of care. This could take in events such as not arranging for you to have the appropriate vaccinations before sending you to a tropical area, or not giving you full information about what to do to avoid water-borne diseases or food poisoning while overseas.

 

Finally, the employee has to show that falling ill as a consequence of the disease was a foreseeable consequence of the employer’s negligence. Sometimes the connection between the negligent act and the consequence for the employer is very obvious, but in other cases it is harder to establish. In these sorts of cases, working with a lawyer who is experienced in military compensation claims can be essential.