With JMW's help, a man has been awarded £2,712 compensation after he was exposed to loud noise whilst working that eventually resulted in loss of hearing.

The Claim

Mr R came to us as a relatively young hearing loss claimant at the age of 48. He had worked as a civil engineer on and off for nearly 30 years and had noticed his hearing starting to deteriorate over the previous two years. He approached us after seeing an advert that caused him to connect his hearing loss to the noise he encountered in his previous jobs. JMW's industrial disease solicitors, Lucy Cooper and Sapna Gangani were assigned to his case.

The Case

In the two years prior to Mr R seeking out JMW Solicitors, he had been finding it harder to hear his friends in loud social situations and had also found that he was having to turn the volume on the TV up louder than usual. However, it was not until Mr R became aware of noise-induced hearing loss that he came to suspect the root cause for his hearing problems to be his previous employment. Mr R had worked for an aluminium company in the 1980s where he operated an aluminium cutting machine in a very loud environment. He had also worked as a civil engineer more recently for Croydon Council, in a job that involved him using power tools to break up concrete. In both of these jobs, ear protection was either not provided or not enforced.

Proving the Case

After JMW Solicitors were assigned to Mr R’s case, Lucy began attempting to contact the insurance companies of his former employers. The aluminium company had since dissolved, but the industrial disease team was able to locate the insurers of said company and to send the letter of claim to them.

Lucy arranged for Mr R to have an audiogram that would confirm whether or not he was suffering from noise induced hearing loss. After the results of the audiogram showed that Mr R was suffering from the condition, it was arranged for him to see an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist. After assessing Mr R, the ENT specialist confirmed that Mr R was suffering from noise-induced hearing loss of moderate severity and that his exposure to noise had accelerated his need for hearing aids by 10 years.

With this confirmed, Sapna communicated the situation to the insurance companies of the two defendants, with the aim of achieving a settlement.

Settling the Case

The defendants made an initial offer that Sapna and Mr R deemed to be too low. As such they rejected the offer. Though Sapna was in negotiations with the defendants’ lawyers to agree upon a satisfactory settlement, the liability deadline was fast approaching so without a sufficient offer on the table, she issued court proceedings.

Fortunately, the defendants made an increased offer before the case was due to go before a judge. Mr R was happy to receive a cheque for £2,712.50 in damages, which paid for his suffering and towards future costs of hearing aids.

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