Judgment has been handed down in the Military Deafness Litigation (Abbott and Others v Ministry of Defence [2026] EWHC 941 (KB)), one of The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of 2025. This was test-case litigation heard by The Honourable Mr Justice Garnham sitting in the King’s Bench Division of the High Court.
James Pickering of 12KBW, instructed by Simon Ellis of Hugh James, was part of the Counsel team who represented the successful Claimants at the trial. Harry Steinberg KC, Aliyah Akram and Elliott Courcha of Outer Temple Chambers were also instructed by Hugh James.
The judge accepted the Claimants’ arguments that diagnosis and quantification in military Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) claims should be based on new guidelines developed by Professor Brian Moore and rejected the Defendant’s position that the Court should use the CLB and LCB tests (which are commonly used in industrial deafness claims).
There are additional aspects of the ruling with effects reaching far beyond military NIHL specifically. Further details are available in this article by Hugh James.
The judgment has important substantive and practical implications for how military NIHL claims should be litigated. To discuss these, please contact James Pickering.
