military law solicitors

Accidents In

A Military Workplace

Members of the Armed Forces have had the right to claim for compensation since 1987, and although many military personnel believe you must have left the military before making a claim, this is not the case. There are many different criteria which determine whether you can make a claim for compensation, and these are listed below.

 

Before going into the details regarding the circumstances in which you may or may not be able to make a personal injury claim, it is worth pointing out that there are other routes to getting compensation. If your accident happened before 6th April 2005, you might be eligible to claim for a War Pension Payment. If the accident happened after 6th April 2005, you might be able to file a “no fault” claim with the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, as long as the claim is made within seven years of the accident happening. However, the sums of compensation which are paid through the AFCS are far lower than the money you could expect to receive when going down the personal injury claim route.

 

The main reasons why someone may not be able to make a claim for personal injury or which may mean that you receive less compensation are as follows:

 

1. The accident was your fault and nobody else is to blame.
2. The employer is proved not to have been negligent under health and safety laws, and did what they could to ensure that the workplace was as safe as it could be.
3. A time period of more than three years has elapsed since the accident happened.
4. Even if the employer was negligent, what happened as a consequence was not foreseeable.
5. You were in a combat zone when the accident happened. In these situations “combat immunity” applies and an employer cannot be held responsible for accidents. This is the case even if you weren’t actually fighting when the accident happened.
6. The accident happened overseas, and the person who was negligent or careless was a foreign national of the country concerned. A personal lawyer overseas would have to bring a case under the foreign country’s legal system.
7. You’ve never worked for the military. People making a claim for military compensation have to have served in the Armed Forces or worked for them as a civilian, and the accident must have been caused by the military.

 

These issues can be complicated, and it’s always best to have the services of a personal accident lawyer who has a proven track record in claiming for military accidents. These sorts of lawyers can pick their way through the MoD jargon and bureaucracy with ease, and can liaise with the MoD legal department and insurance companies. Specialist military law solicitors often have valuable contacts in the military welfare organisations. An experienced lawyer is a great asset to have on your side to fight your military medical negligence claims, and saying that they are invaluable doesn’t come close to stressing their importance.