Do you need information on how to make a hearing loss claim for personal injury compensation? This article will explain what hearing loss is and how you could qualify to claim for damage to your hearing if another party was at fault.
There are hearing loss claim time limits and we explain those in detail. Also, we explain how compensation could be awarded for a successful personal injury claim. Evidence is an essential part of supporting hearing loss compensation claims and so we provide examples of items that you could use to strengthen your case.
The last part of our guide explains how a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel could handle your claim for hearing damage. There are many advantages to working with a solicitor and we detail them for you clearly.
If you’d like to discuss your potential claim now, please speak to an advisor. They can assess the merit of the case in one phone call and connect eligible callers with a solicitor from our panel to help. Or if you’d simply like more information, you can:
- Call 020 8050 2736 and discuss how to claim compensation if you’ve suffered hearing loss.
- Request a call back by filling out our claim online form.
- Ask “Can you claim for hearing loss?’ in our live discussion portal.
Choose A Section
- What Is Hearing Loss?
- What Is A Hearing Loss Claim?
- Is There A Hearing Loss Claim Time Limit?
- How Much Hearing Loss Compensation Could I Receive?
- What Can Help Me Prove A Hearing Loss Claim?
- Can I Claim Compensation For Hearing Loss On A No Win No Fee Basis?
- Resources About How To Claim Compensation
What Is Hearing Loss?
According to information from the NHS, hearing loss is a common condition for many people particularly as they get older. Typical symptoms include:
- Difficulty making out what people are saying and asking them to repeat themselves.
- Needing to increase the volume of a TV or music.
- Struggling to hear conversations on the phone.
- Fatigue and stress caused by having to concentrate more on listening.
- Tinnitus is another hearing condition that causes buzzing, humming and ringing in one or both ears which can be a distracting and distressing background noise. These noises can come and go or be noticeable to the sufferer all the time.
Whilst a degree of natural hearing loss is common, damage to this sense can also happen suddenly if the person is exposed to a loud noise, an ear infection or a trauma to the head. Hearing loss injury can be either temporary or permanent.
What Is A Hearing Loss Claim?
You could qualify for making a hearing loss claim if you can prove the damage to your ears was caused by a liable third party. This is because of duty of care laws that protect your safety and well-being in certain places. We now look at some areas where a duty of care might be breached by those responsible and cause permanent hearing loss:
Accidents At Work
Legislation called the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HASAWA) requires a duty of care from employers. It states that reasonable and practicable steps must be taken to prevent employees from experiencing injury at work. A failure to meet health and safety obligations in the workplace could result in the following:
- An employer fails to provide employees with proper protection such as a safety helmet. A worker is impacted by falling debris, causing head injury and hearing damage.
- Poor levels of training and supervision in a warehouse caused a worker to collide with another employee while driving a forklift. This resulted in multiple head and bodily injuries, of which hearing damage was one symptom.
Accidents in a Public Place
The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 requires that the party in control of areas open to the public take reasonable steps to prevent visitors from coming to harm. Therefore, valid grounds for a hearing loss claim could apply if:
- The occupier failed to address damaged public stairs, handrails or loose carpets on their premises and a member of the public fell, suffering head injury and partial hearing loss.
- Security at a night-time venue failed to control or diffuse a violent situation and a person was attacked, sustaining head injuries and hearing loss.
Road Traffic Accidents
Each road user has a duty to avoid causing risk of injury and damage to each other as they use the roads. To fully adhere to their duty of care, they need to abide by the Road Traffic Act 1988 and other rules outlined in the Highway Code. A valid hearing loss claim could apply if:
- A road user was committing a speeding offence and collided with another driver, cyclist or a pedestrian causing them hearing damage as part of their injuries.
- A motorist was driving under the influence of alcohol and crashed into another driver in a side-impact collision. The person lost their hearing because their head hit the side window with force.
Discuss hearing loss compensation claims with a member of our team today. They can go over the exact circumstances of the incident that caused damage to your hearing.
Is There A Hearing Loss Claim Time Limit?
The hearing loss claim time limit (like all personal injury claims) is typically three years from the date of the accident that caused the damage. The Limitation Act 1980 provides some possible alterations to this time limit. For example:
- Time limits are paused for minors and do not start until they become 18.
- The time limit is removed completely for claimants without the mental capacity to claim themselves. It can re-start from the date that capacity returns.
- Both groups can have a litigation friend launch a personal injury claim immediately (or at any point while the time limit is suspended) on their behalf. This is typically a concerned party appointed by the courts.
If you would like to find out if you are within the limitation period to start a claim for hearing loss compensation, speak to a member of our team.
How Much Hearing Loss Compensation Could I Receive?
If a personal injury claim is successful, up to two heads of loss can make up the hearing loss settlement. The main head is called general damages. This compensates the person for the bodily injury itself, alongside any psychological injury. In addition, general damages consider the long-term impact of the injuries as well as any chance of recovery.
The professionals tasked with calculating general damages can refer to medical reports to help them. Also, they may consult documents like the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This publication provides a list of various injuries based on type and severity alongside guideline compensation amounts.
Below we’ve compiled a brief excerpt from the JCG to illustrate. They are only guidelines and our table includes a topline figure that does not come from this source:
Compensation Guidelines
| Injury Area | Severity | Award Guidelines | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple injuries, (classed as severe) with special damages. | Severe | up to £500,000 plus | Severe types of multiple harm and special damage payments for lost income, care costs and medical procedures. |
| Head/Brain | (a) Very Severe (i) | £344,150 to £493,000 | In addition to a complete loss of ability to follow commands, sensory impairment (which might include deafness) is noted. |
| Head/Brain | (c) Moderate (i) | £183,190 to £267,340 | Moderate ranging to severe intellectual deficit and impact on the senses leaving no prospect of being employed. |
| Deafness/Tinnitus | (a) Total deafness and loss of speech. | £133,810 to £171,680 | Cases where the deafness occurred at a young enough age to significantly impact speech. |
| (b) Total deafness | £110,750 to £133,810 | The lower end of this award bracket applies to cases without tinnitus or defective speech while the higher include includes these symptoms. | |
| (c) Total loss of hearing in one ear | £38,210 to £55,570 | The higher award in this bracket applies if there is associated dizziness, headaches and tinnitus. | |
| (d) Partial hearing loss and/or tinnitus | £36,260 to £55,570 | Severe tinnitus cases. | |
| Moderate to severe tinnitus (ii) | £18,180 to £36,260 | Cases of tinnitus considered to be moderate ranging to severe. | |
| Mild tinnitus (iv) | Around £14,300 | Cases of mild tinnitus that present alone. | |
| Time limited or accelerated need for hearing aids | £6,100 to £11,840 | Instances where a period of hearing aid use is required until corrective intervention and surgical cure can take place. |
Can I Claim For Hearing Damage If I’m Unable To Work?
In addition to general damages, an award can be made for the financial harm caused by the injuries. Special damages can form part of a settlement if you can substantiate them with documented proof. For example, you may have wage slips, receipts and paid invoices for the following:
- Loss of earnings caused by time missed from work.
- The expenses of a hearing aid.
- Damage to your pension contributions or attendance bonus.
- Travel costs to essential appointments.
- Medical expenses and costs for rehabilitation needs, such as speech therapy.
An advisor can discuss with you how compensation could be awarded for a successful hearing loss claim. They can also help value your compensation claim based on the specifics of your case.
What Can Help Me Prove A Hearing Loss Claim?
Evidence is a fundamental part of your hearing loss claim. It’s essential that you can present proof of liability for your hearing loss and ear damage. With this in mind, the following actions can help build your case:
- Get a copy of any workplace accident report.
- Request copies of CCTV footage or dashcam film that shows your accident.
- Ask eyewitnesses for their contact details. Witness statements can be obtained later in the claims process that support your side of events.
- Take photos of any items that caused your ear injury.
- Request medical notes from anyone who treated you at the hospital, your GP surgery or the findings of an ear specialist.
- Consider seeking legal advice from a solicitor who can help you gather relevant evidence for your hearing loss or tinnitus compensation claim.
If you have any questions about claiming compensation for hearing loss, please speak to a member of our advisory team.
Can I Claim Compensation For Hearing Loss On A No Win No Fee Basis?
The solicitors on our panel are experts at negotiating the best settlement for their clients. When they handle your claim, they can provide direct support with the collecting of evidence, gather statements and arrange any medical assessments that will prove your injury.
As well as this they can guide you confidently through the whole claims process, handling the correspondence, meeting the deadlines and calculating the maximum compensation owed to you.
What’s more, they are able to offer these outstanding services through a type of No Win No Fee agreement called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This typically means that you can start work with a legal expert without the obstacle of any upfront or ongoing fees for their services.
If the claim is unsuccessful, no solicitors fees are required for completed services. But if the claim is a success, you still only pay your solicitors a small legally restricted success fee. This percentage is capped by law. Thereby making certain that almost all of the compensation goes to you.
If you’re interested in learning how much compensation you could be owed, take the first step of speaking to our advisors. They can assess the merit of your claim in one simple phone call. If it appears robust and you wish to go ahead, they could connect you to a skilled No Win No Fee personal injury solicitor from our panel to get started today.
- Call 020 8050 2736 to chat about deafness or tinnitus claims.
- Request a call back by filling out our claim online form.
- Ask “Can you claim for hearing loss?’ in our live chat.
Resources About How To Claim Compensation
For more information on personal injury compensation, please refer to these other guides from our website:
- This guide looks at claims for slips, trips and falls at work.
- Here we explain nerve damage claims in detail.
- Also, read about compensation FAQs in this guide.
External links:
- Help with hearing aids and implants from the NHS here.
- Information about the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), the charity that supports deaf people.
- Advice on making a claim for statutory sick pay (SSP) from the government.
We hope this guide on making a hearing loss claim has been useful. Reach out to advisors for free advice on both hearing loss compensation claims and severe tinnitus compensation claims.
