A former soldier of the British Army received a six figure sum as a result of developing non-freezing cold injuries during basic training in 2017 when he was 16 years of age. Conditions outside at Catterick dropped to minus 15 degrees Celsius during the night. It was snowy and very boggy underfoot. There were no foot or hand inspections by the seniors. Our client was not provided with suitable protective equipment. Our client reported symptoms to his section commander, which were suggestive of a cold injury however he was not downgraded. He continued on the exercise until his feet were very painful.

During a weekend of leave he went to his local accident and emergency who referred him to the Army doctor and was then downgraded. Despite being downgraded he had to continue on exercises outside which resulted in a worsening of his condition. He had to continue with guard duty which involved standing outside for long periods of time. He was “beasted” by his section commanders for limping and not completing tasks properly.

Our client had no alternative but to leave the Army as he could not cope with his injury or the way he was being treated. A particular feature of this case was our client’s very young age. We argued there was even more of an onus on the chain of command to conduct regular inspections in relation to somebody who was so young when he joined the Army. He consulted us some years after the initial injury and after he was discharged. Whilst the claim was out of time, we pursued it and obtained a six figure settlement sum for him.