Claiming compensation for military injury – two options

As a member of the Armed Forces, you have two options when it comes to claiming compensation for an accident sustained on duty.

Firstly, you can follow the usual civilian claims route and make your personal injury claim against the Ministry of Defence through a county court with the assistance of a specialist accident claims solicitor. This is the way most service personnel choose to make a claim.

The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme

Alternatively, you may prefer to claim for yourself, or on behalf of a family member through the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) which is open to all military personnel. The AFCS was established in 2005 as a replacement for the War Pensions Scheme and accounts for all types and severity of injury.

The scheme was designed to reduce the traffic in the county courts, instead encouraging armed forces members to use the military process and with the number of military claims going through county courts declining it appears to have been successful. The problem is that those using AFCS tend to receive smaller payouts due to the rigid 15 tiered system used to assess injuries and the compensation that should be paid. Unfortunately, this means that claimants often receive less than they deserve and effectively only receive their military pension with a small amount added as compensation.

The AFCS will not pay out more than £570,000 irrespective of the seriousness of the injury and when this is compared to the millions which may be awarded in a disastrous injury claim it appears very small. Some important considerations appear to be overlooked in AFCS payouts such as medical care expenses, loss of earnings due to forced retirement, costs of adapting the home and lost pension rights. These things would all be considered in the county courts.

It should be mentioned that the scheme generously gives claimants 7 years in which to make their claim compared to the three year claims limit enforced by the county courts. The danger here though is that is that military personnel are unaware of the different time limits and miss out on their chance to claim in the county courts.

For specialist advice on Military Injury Compensation, call us today

If you’re thinking of making claim following either an accident at work, or after suffering medical negligence in the military, we strongly advise that you instruct a military injury claims expert to handle your case. These can be hard to come by but thankfully our accident claim team have the experience of dealing with the military you need to recover the full and fair amount of compensation that you deserve – wherever you are based in the UK, or overseas.

Call us now on 01722 422300, or

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