3 Hare Court

This Practice Note considers guidelines which are used to assess noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in particular guidelines published in 2000 to identify or diagnose NIHL and further guidelines published by the same authors in 2016 to provide a basis to quantify the amount of NIHL. It also briefly considers the 2022 guidelines which have reviewed the methods for the diagnosis and quantification of NIHL.

This Practice Note sets out the main avenues for personal injury claims by injured serving and former service personnel, including claims under statute and compensation schemes under domestic law and the European Convention on Human Rights. It considers claims arising from accidents during combat operations and training, plus specific injuries including non-freezing cold injury, noise-induced hearing loss, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychiatric injuries related to bullying or harassment and parading injuries.

This Practice Note outlines how to read audiograms and the basic principles of occupational noise relevant to noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) claims. An audiogram is a graph showing the sounds a person can hear and is used in NIHL claims to measure the claimant’s hearing ability.