Sam Louwers recently appeared before the First Tier Tribunal of the War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Chamber representing O in an appeal against the Secretary of State for Defence (SoS).
O, a former serviceman, had developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a direct result of their service in Afghanistan. After an initial claim, the SoS refused the award in the first instance on the basis that O had other factors in their life that had impacted their mental health.
O initially appealed this to the tribunal who found that when applying the correct legal test, O’s service was found to the predominant cause of their mental health injury.
On this basis, the SoS made a number of interim awards over the forthcoming years identifying the severity of harm O’s PTSD cased on a daily basis. However, when the award was made final in 2024, O was only awarded a description of moderate functional limitation being impacted by their PTSD. This decision was subsequently appealed.
Sam was instructed to represent O in this final hearing before the tribunal to have the award placed at the correct position on the tariff tables.
Initially listed for a 5-hour hearing, Sam made written submissions to the panel outlining the position and defining the areas being contested by the parties.
In tribunal, the SoS was represented and argued that O’s mental health was correctly placed within the tariff tables and did not warrant higher awards. However, through robust submission, Sam argued that the SoS had not only failed to take into account the full range of medical history available to the panel but had failed to consider the previous findings of the Court of Appeal when considering the trajectory of a claimant’s mental health under the AFCS scheme.
The panel made a finding that the injury sustained by O has a significant impact on their daily functional limitation and increased the award accordingly.
O will now be entitled to around £3.8million via an increased lump sum payment, guaranteed income payments, and relevant benefits over the remainder of O’s life.
As a former serviceman, Sam is always keen to represent members of the Armed Forces Community, both serving and veteran, and is available for instruction accordingly.
Sam was instructed by Amanda Marsh of JMW.
