The High Court judgment on the Army-hearing issue and a compensation payment of only £3,000 to a former soldier has been welcomed by the Minister for Defence as a "landmark". The Government hopes the decision will mark the end of the avalanche of claims of hearing damage by serving and former soldiers.
Yesterday's judgment means the courts will from now on accept the State's official guidelines on hearing damage, known as the Green Book, in the absence of an "appropriate" alternative.
The judgment and award of only £3,000 may also bring forward Mr Smith's proposal for a compensation board to settle soldiers' compensation claims quickly at much lower levels than previously awarded by the courts.
The Minister made his proposal last week during meetings with soldiers in Border camps. If soldiers with mild hearing damage were prepared to go before a board and accept payments as low as yesterday's, he said, all the cases could be dealt with inside two years.
The claim involved in this particular incident, which became a test case, was brought by a retired sergeant, Mr John Greene (59), from Athlone. The court found he had a 2 per cent hearing loss and awarded him £3,000.
Mr Justice Lavan said an audio gram put in evidence on behalf of Mr Greene revealed a 2 per cent hearing loss which coincided with the assessment of hearing loss put forward by the State in applying Green Book criteria. He also felt it was significant Mr Greene had been referred to his expert by his solicitor and not his doctor.
Mr Smith said he was heartened by the judgment, which had removed the handicap of an absence of an agreed basis for assessing hearing loss. If the court had not accepted the Green Book assessment system, the alternative would have been to compensate people with no disability with consequent huge costs to the taxpayer. At one stage, estimates on the potential costs to the State were running as high as £2 billion.
It was feared that up to 50,000 serving and retired soldiers would lodge claims. The courts had awarded claimants with only marginal hearing damage up to £80,000.
There are 11,076 military hearing cases before the High Court which could take up to 17 years to clear, although yesterday's judgment might suggest that many will be withdrawn.
The total amount of awards made so far has been £37.25 million, together with £10.47 million in legal costs. Since the start of this year 1,750 soldiers have lodged compensation claims.