We receive a large number of enquiries each year from service men and women in the Armed Forces in relation to non-freezing cold injury (NFCI) claims. Our expert military solicitors now represent many in non-freezing cold injury claims for compensation.

Our experts at Nigel Askew Solicitors have many years’ experience in successfully winning claims for our clients and provide an excellent standard of legal advice and representation.

If you are suffering from a non-freezing cold injury, which may have damaged your military career, contact us today by calling 01507 609027 as you may have grounds for making a compensation claim against the Ministry of Defence.  We offer all our clients a free and no obligation initial case assessment and are available to speak to now.

Non-freezing cold injuries (NCFIs), occur when the body is exposed to cold, damp or wet conditions for a prolonged period of time. When this occurs, the affected area of the body, usually the hands and feet, experience reduced blood flow, depriving them of oxygen and vital fluids and nutrients.

A non-freezing cold injury can often lead to a number of long-term and painful symptoms, which include:

• Pain when the foot is warmed up in a bath or shower
• Whitening or blanching of the foot, then followed by redness
• Bouts of numbness due to damaged nerve endings
• The foot can swell and become painful to walk on

These effects can last several months and in very severe cases many years, resulting in a loss of military career by way of medical discharge and the ability to gain suitable employment in normal civilian life after discharge. This can be devastating for ex-service men and women who had planned long term military careers.

The experts at Nigel Askew solicitors have extensive experience helping service personnel win non-freezing cold injury compensation claims for incidents occurring in training environments.

The Ministry of Defence is an employer that must adhere to Health and Safety regulations in exactly the same way as businesses in the private sector.  If non-freezing cold injuries occur, the military has failed in its duty of care and a claim against them for negligence is possible.

The amount of compensation that may be awarded for non-freezing cold injuries can vary and are dependent upon the severity of your injuries. If your NFCI has caused you to have been medically discharged from service then this is likely to mean a much larger compensation award.

We recently assisted a member of the Armed Forces in a claim for non-freezing cold injuries and have prepared a case study, which you can read here.

In some cases compensation awards can be several hundred thousand pounds.

Most non-freezing cold injury claims are funded by Conditional Fee Agreements. These agreements are commonly referred to as either a “CFA” or a “No Win No Fee agreement”.  The nature of these agreements means that law firms take all the financial risk and not the client.  If a claim fails, the law firm is not paid and the client does not have to pay any solicitor’s fees for their time.  For taking this risk, it is common for law firms to agree with a client that they will be paid up to 25% of the client’s non-freezing cold injury compensation award at the end of a successful claim. Law firms fees are paid by the Ministry of Defence. We do not require our non-freezing cold injury clients to pay any upfront fees to get a claim up and running.

The Ministry of Defence has a duty of care to protect service men and women and must provide a safe working environment, where an employee is not at risk of sustaining injury or illness and if they fall foul of this requirement then they may be deemed negligent.

This includes ensuring that training and other exercises are carried out safely, and that all military personnel are provided with the right clothing, shelter and PPE. The military should monitor and check for any signs of cold injury and ensure all personnel are fit and able to carry out exercises.

If you are experiencing any symptoms associated with NCFI then we strongly recommend you contact a law firm who specialise in military related compensation claims.  Claims for non-freezing cold injuries are complex so ensure the law firm you instruct has sufficient and relevant experience.

We offer all new military clients a free initial consultation to discuss the merits of your claim and are available to speak to now. Contact us by calling 01507 609027 or submit an online enquiry using the form on the right hand side of this page and one of our expert and friendly solicitors will call you as soon as we can.