How to choose a Military Claims Lawyer

A serious and avoidable personal injury, which compromises your hard-fought career in the Army, Navy, Royal Marines or RAF, is a one-off never to be repeated event.

You are at your lowest ebb and feeling vulnerable.  However, still you must choose your military claims lawyer wisely. 

Facebook and Instagram is flooded with grandiose adverts from self-styled military claims experts. Don’t be drawn in by those ads, because underneath all the razzmatazz, the fact is, they are speculators. Sniffing around for a gold nugget (that’s you, by the way). The overwhelming majority of these speculators are call centre type operations, intent upon harvesting your personal data to sell to the highest bidder.  They are not likely to be military claims experts. A complex military personal injury claim against the Ministry of Defence requires strong technical competence and a skill set that will only be found within a law firm which employs lawyers who specialise in military claims. A specialist military claims lawyer will have a proven track record of success and Personal Injury Accreditation, a peer assessed hallmark of quality, one which sets them apart from the speculators. This will be complimented by a heap of visible, independent client testimonials.   

Meanwhile, the speculators will ply you with bold promises and within minutes, email you a bundle of documents, insisting that you ‘sign here’. But it is important that you ask the speculator to direct you to the website of the law firm they intend placing you with. If they don’t, end the call.  

Should they do so, look for an accreditation mark. If they are not accredited, ask them why not.  Read the client testimonials.  Read the lawyer profiles.  If there are none listed, you need to wonder why. Read their case studies. Ask them questions: How long have they been pursuing claims against the MOD? What is their average settlement value?  What experience do they have that sets them apart? What will they deduct from the damages? If they can’t answer simple questions to your satisfaction, you need to deduce whether they are right for you.      

The two accreditation schemes to look out for when choosing your military claims lawyer are those run by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL).  Our Managing Director and founder, Grant Evatt (pictured), a former Army Commando, is an authority in military personal injury claims. Grant has been accredited by the SRA since 2005 and for six years he held the position of Coordinator of the Military Special Interest Group of APIL. He is also a former member of the Executive Committee of APIL.

In most cases we will offer to act for you under a Conditional Fee Agreement, commonly known as a 'no-win-no-fee' agreement. In the unlikely event that you don’t win your case with us, then provided you are not in breach of any of your legal obligations, there is no fee, and you walk away.  If we win your claim, you will be asked to make a modest contribution to the legal costs from your damages. The main deduction, called a ‘Success Fee’, cannot by law be more than 25% of the total of injury damages and past financial losses.  The following is a real-time example of one of our recent Military-Noise Induced Hearing Loss (M-NIHL) settled cases: 

                                             £

Full and Final Settlement          325,000

Injury damages                       25,000

Past losses                            15,000

Future and other losses           285,000       

Success fee deducted:             £10,000 (i.e 25% of injury damages and past losses inclusive of VAT).

You may also be liable for payment out of the damages of any unrecovered legal costs and expenses from the MOD. Quite how much is carefully assessed on a case-by-case basis and agreed with you at the outset.

Beware of ‘speculators’. The MOD does not simply roll over and settle a military claim. They will defend a poorly prepared case and you need to have precise knowledge and experience to know how to defeat them. Also, an accredited and specialist military claims lawyer will have a far greater understanding of what heads of loss can be included in your military claim.  No stone will be left unturned.

Alma Law has a unique and unrivalled expertise in military claims. Call or email us to arrange a no obligation, confidential discussion with Grant Evatt about your military claim.

♾️ 01264 355477 

♾️ contact@almalaw.co.uk

GE

11.09.23