Sensitive legal listening
In addition to pre-litigation claims handling, the Occupational Disease team handle increasing numbers of noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) litigation instructions across all three technical teams (Leeds, Manchester and Evesham) in response to the significantly increased number of claims faced by insurers.
Each technical team has considerable experience of the issues arising in litigated NIHL claims. We have developed an easy to use tool which determines whether the diagnostic requirements for NIHL are satisfied based on the Coles criteria.
This tool takes data from the claimant’s audiogram, analyses the data and determines whether a claimant has NIHL based on the Coles criteria. The tool also calculates the likely level of any hearing loss due to noise enabling claims to be repudiated or appropriate payments to be made where necessary.
The technical team in Leeds was involved in the Nottingham and Derbyshire Textile Industry litigation involving more than 4,000 potential NIHL claims.
The team acted for the defendant in one of the lead cases (Parks v Meridian) providing the strategic legal framework, preparing the lead case to a full trial (and subsequent appeals) and, most importantly, managing a large group of claims standing behind the lead cases and in the majority remained pre-litigation. The team worked extensively with other parties on this major claims handling and litigation project and managed a team of experts throughout.
Occupational Disease
