Our client, a Royal Marine in his 30s, was left paralysed during a training exercise in 2016. The accident took place in Dubai in a dune buggy being driven by a colleague. After barely any guidance, our client’s colleague drove too fast over one sand dune, lost control and the buggy flipped over. Our client hit his head on the roof of the vehicle and suffered a T4 spinal cord injury which rendered him paraplegic.

His employers, the Ministry of Defence, denied they were to blame, saying that he was not on active duty at the time of the accident. They claimed the tour operator who had organised the activity was to blame. Given the tour operator was based in Dubai, there were issues involving cross border authority and concern that the tour operator may not have adequate insurance to cover the claim.

Our specialist military lawyers began court proceedings and managed to not only get the case set down for a five-day trial to determine who was at fault for but also to persuade the Ministry of Defence to attend a joint settlement meeting in an attempt to settle the claim out of court. Our team gathered witness evidence from a number of experts who were specialists in the fields of accident reconstruction, spinal cord injury, and occupational therapy.

As a result of our team’s hard work and determination, the claim was settled for an impressive £8 million at the joint settlement meeting. This enabled our client to purchase a new home suitable for his needs, state-of-the-art mobility equipment, a new vehicle adapted to his injury and has the funds to meet his future lifetime care needs, increasing his quality of life.

If you or a loved one has been injured at work or in the military, contact our specialists to find out if you can make a claim.