Military Injury Claims
Check if you can claim compensation
If you are currently serving in the Armed Forces or have previously served, you may be able to claim compensation for an injury caused during training, exercises, other service duties or by unsafe equipment. We handle military injury claims on a No Win No Fee basis and will explain your options clearly.
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Can you make a military injury claim?
Most people assume that signing up means signing away the right to claim. It does not. The Ministry of Defence owes its personnel much the same duty as any other employer: safe equipment, safe systems of work, proper training and proper supervision. That duty has been enforceable in the courts since 1987.
What the law does put beyond reach is the battlefield itself. Decisions taken in the course of actual operations against an enemy are protected. Very little else is. The Supreme Court has confirmed that planning, preparation, training and equipment decisions made away from the fighting can be examined in the ordinary way, and that is where the great majority of service injuries happen.
Most service injuries never go near a war zone
The picture people carry of a military injury claim is a casualty evacuation. The reality recorded in the MOD’s own figures is a soldier who tears a knee on a battle run, a marine deafened on a range with the wrong ear defence, a technician crushed by a load that was lifted badly, a driver hurt in a collision on the way back from an exercise.
People put those down to bad luck, or to the job being hard. Training that is planned badly, kit that is worn out, ranges run without proper hearing protection and vehicles that should have been off the road are ordinary safety failures, and the law treats them as such.
of injuries to Regular Armed Forces personnel in 2024/25 occurred during training.
Military training is planned, supervised and subject to health and safety controls. If inadequate planning, supervision or safety measures caused your injury, you may be able to claim compensation.
Military injuries we handle claims for
From a single bad day on exercise to damage that only showed itself years after discharge.
Training and exercise injuries
Loaded marches, assault courses, live firing, battle PT and adventurous training. Hard is the whole point of it. The question is whether the activity was planned, briefed and supervised the way the MOD’s own rules require.
Noise-induced hearing loss
Ranges, armoured vehicles, flight decks and engine rooms. Hearing loss and tinnitus are among the most common claims brought against the MOD, and the damage is often only recognised long after discharge.
Non-freezing cold injury
Feet and hands left wet and cold for too long on exercise. Most cases settle within months, but the nerve damage can be permanent, and lasting pain and cold sensitivity end careers for people who were never warned about the risk.
Defective or unsuitable equipment
Boots, body armour, ear defence, machinery and vehicles that were the wrong kit, worn out, badly maintained or never issued at all. Equipment decisions taken away from the front line are open to scrutiny.
Service vehicle accidents
Collisions in service vehicles, injuries as a passenger being moved between locations, and accidents involving MOD drivers on public roads. These run much like any other road traffic claim, with the MOD in place of the other driver’s insurer.
Psychiatric injury
Post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety recognised as a diagnosable condition. Because operational decisions are protected, a negligence claim here tends to focus on how the service responded once a difficulty was known, rather than on the events themselves.
Downgraded or medically discharged
For a lot of people the injury is not the biggest loss. The career is. A downgrade that stops you deploying, a trade you can no longer hold, a medical board that ends your service years earlier than you planned: those change what the rest of your working life looks like, and they are part of what a claim is for.
It is also the part of a claim that a fixed tariff cannot reach, because it starts from your own record rather than from a table. Where your service was heading, what you can realistically do now and what sits between the two are assessed on evidence, and a good deal of that evidence is already written down.
- Your JMES before and after the injury, and what changed about your deployability
- The medical board papers, and whether a downgrade was recorded as temporary or permanent
- Your trade, your promotion track and where your service was realistically heading
- What work you can do now, and what retraining or support getting there would take
A discharge on medical grounds attracts a grading of P8. Source: MOD, Joint Service Manual of Medical Fitness, JSP 950. You do not need any of these papers to speak to us; we request them.
- The injury itself, and what it costs you day to day
- Treatment, rehabilitation, hearing aids, prosthetics and the appointments that go with them
- Earnings and pension you have lost, now and in the years ahead
- Care, help at home and adaptations where the injury is a lasting one
How military injury compensation is worked out
A negligence claim is valued on your particular losses rather than on a fixed table. That is the practical difference between it and a scheme award, and it is why a downgrade, a medical discharge or a career that stopped short of where it was heading can matter as much as the injury itself.
If you already hold a scheme award for the same injury, it is taken into account so that you are not compensated twice for the same thing. It changes what a claim is actually worth to you, so we would rather raise it at the start than at the end.
Evidence in a military injury claim
The forces document almost everything, which works in your favour. Most of what a claim needs already exists in a file with your service number on it.
Discharged years ago without your records? You can still request your service records from the MOD. Not having copies does not stop a claim, but current backlogs mean it is worth starting early.
No Win No Fee military injury claims
Starting costs nothing, and if the claim does not succeed you will not pay for our work, subject to the terms of your agreement. If it succeeds, a success fee agreed with you at the outset comes out of the compensation.
A claim against the MOD is handled by its claims directorate or by the claims handlers it contracts, not by your unit and not by your chain of command. In practice you are dealing with a claims team, much as you would with any large organisation.
You will see the full terms in writing before anything is signed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know before starting your claim.
Can I make a military injury claim while I am still serving?
You can. Serving personnel and veterans are both able to claim, and the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme is open to regulars and reserves whether or not they have left. A negligence claim against the MOD is a civil matter handled by its claims teams, separate from your unit. The War Pension Scheme is the exception, as it is for people who have already left.
Is this different from an AFCS claim?
Yes, and the difference is fault. The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme pays on a no-fault basis for injury, illness or death caused by service on or after 6 April 2005, using a set tariff. A negligence claim has to show that someone fell short of a duty owed to you, and it is valued on your own losses instead of a tariff. Holding a scheme award does not stop you claiming, but the award is taken into account so that the same injury is not paid for twice.
Will making a claim affect my career?
It is the question we are asked most. A claim is a legal process rather than a disciplinary one. It is dealt with by the MOD’s claims teams rather than by your chain of command, and bringing one is a right you have in law. We cannot promise how any individual will react to it, but we can tell you that serving personnel bring these claims regularly and that we will keep the process as low key as you want it to be.
What is the 52-week rule?
The rule people usually mean is about benefits rather than about the claim itself. A lump sum from the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme is disregarded as capital for the first 52 weeks when means-tested benefits are worked out, which gives you time to take advice before it counts against you. That is the position set out in the House of Commons Library briefing on the scheme. Benefits are outside what we advise on, so speak to Veterans UK or a benefits adviser before you make any decisions about the money.
Can I claim if I was injured off duty or playing sport?
Often, and it is worth asking rather than assuming. For a negligence claim, organised sport and adventurous training are service activities, so the usual questions about planning, supervision and equipment apply, and injuries in accommodation or elsewhere on the estate can raise a claim against whoever was responsible for the premises. The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme runs on its own test of what was caused by service, and MOD guidance makes no distinction between operations, training and service-approved sport. Fitness activity can count even in your own time, while injuries at social events you were not ordered to attend are excluded.
Check if you can make a claim
Tell us roughly when you served and what happened to you. You do not need your service records, a diagnosis or any paperwork to get started, and there is no obligation to go ahead. We act for people who served in the Army, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines and the RAF, regulars and reserves alike.
- Free, no-obligation review
- No Win No Fee available
- SRA-regulated solicitors
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Not sure if you have a claim?
A lot of people decide they are too late, or that it was just part of the job, without ever asking anyone. Tell us when you served and what happened, and we will give you an honest answer about military injury claims, free and with no obligation.
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