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

Complete the contact form below to get in touch with our military law solicitors.

Taking the consequences of military related illness and diseases in order of importance from a humanitarian standpoint inevitably places the pain and suffering of the service personnel who contract diseases and fall ill through no fault of their own unquestionably in the number one position. Some of the diseases members of the military can be exposed to in far flung corners of the globe can be extremely unpleasant and even potentially fatal, such as Coxiella Durnetii which can cause inflammation of the heart or Visceral Leishmaniasis which inflicts a cocktail of adverse health outcomes, such as fever, enlargement of internal organs, weight loss and even death on its victims.

Add to those more ‘exotic’ ailments such well-known diseases as tuberculosis, malaria, influenza, various industrial diseases and a range of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), to name but a small number, and it is easy to understand the extent of the potential health perils serving members of the military might be exposed to – if their employer doesn’t comprehensively discharge their duty of care towards them. The vast majority of food, soil and water-borne diseases, industrial diseases, blood-borne infections, respiratory infections and STDs are preventable or treatable and the Ministry of Defence has a legal responsibility under current health and safety regulations to see to that they are prevented or treated.

The second most important consequence of military related illness and disease is the reduction in efficiency in the armed forces caused by servicemen and women being unavailable for duty due to having contracted a disease and fallen ill. A recent study of hospitalised and out-patient British servicemen/women carried out by the American National Institute for Health (NIH) found that within their sample, on average, those hospitalised due to disease stayed in hospital for 3 days and were off duty for 20 days. Those who were out-patients and attended hospital on average once were off duty for 22 days. Considering that on average ten to fifteen times the number of service personnel fall in due to disease (usually on operational duty) than are injured as a result of being injured in combat, the scale of the problem begins to come into focus.

At number three in the top three of consequences is the fact that service personnel, who contract diseases because their employer failed to take the necessary steps to protect them, might be able to make a claim for compensation. Many service personnel, who find themselves in this situation, for instance, suffering from malaria because they were not vaccinated or vaccinated in time or suffering from the effects of inhaling asbestos dust or some other hazardous substance, would benefit from consulting a specialist solicitor who specialises in military injury claims.

Need a Military Injury Claim Solicitor – call us today

There are strictly enforced time limits for all accident and medical negligence claims. Don’t risk losing your right to the compensation you deserve.

For FREE phone advice and a FREE first appointment from one of our Specialist Military Solicitors;

• Call (01722) 422300 or email us at advice@military-lawyer.co.uk