Client Story: Achieving £45,000 Compensation for a Victim and Survivor of Sexual Abuse in the British Army

Our Client’s Situation

After suffering a serious sexual assault, our client bravely reported the assault which led to her abuser being found guilty in a military court and sentenced to prison. Shortly after the conviction, our client contacted Simpson Millar to help with obtaining compensation and we agreed to take on her claim against the Ministry of Defence.

Our Approach

At Simpson Millar, we have a team of Abuse Solicitors who are experts when it comes to dealing with sexual abuse claims. We understand the worries and concerns survivors may have when claiming compensation for abuse, as well as the mental health support they may need when they’re going through this process.

When dealing with these cases, we always aim to do so with sensitivity and mindfulness, so that our clients feel comfortable discussing their experiences with us. We understand that thinking about the abuse can be difficult for survivors, which is why we want to alleviate as much stress as possible.

We want to make sure that the claims process is transparent and accessible, so that victims and survivors of abuse don’t have to go through additional stress and confusion when they’re claiming compensation. For this reason, we always make sure our clients know what’s happening with their case, and what they can expect going forward.

We work together with our clients at all times throughout the process of claiming compensation, to achieve the best outcome for them.

How We Helped

After we were contacted by our client, we quickly began to gather our client’s medical records and prepare the Letter of Claim to send to the defendant. As the abuse took place in the military, the abuse was investigated by the Military Police so it was crucial we contacted the defendant as soon as possible to obtain our client’s police statement, so we could evidence what happened.

It is often the case we do not need to take a statement from a client directly if their abuser has already been convicted. This is because we can rely on the police statement to evidence what happened, and this means we do not need to have our client go over the abuse again.

At this point, due to the strength of our client’s claim, the defendant admitted they had breached their duty of care towards our client, which meant our next step was to obtain medical evidence so we could value the claim and make an offer to the defendant.

To do this we instructed a psychiatrist to meet with our client who prepared a report that we relied upon to value our client’s claim. We then instructed an experienced barrister who reviewed the evidence and advised on a reasonable offer to make to the defendant to settle the claim.

The Outcome

Because our client was in a strong position, we made an offer at the highest possible value based on the medical evidence. We then expected the defendant to make a counter offer, however we did not receive a response after several weeks of chasing.

To continue to put pressure on the defendant we moved to issue legal proceedings on them without delay. This was done to force the defendant to respond to the offer.

Once proceedings were issued, the defendant must file a defence, however instead of doing so, they accepted the offer we had made, which was the highest amount the claimant was able to recover.

This shows the importance of being proactive when pursuing a claim against a defendant and we were happy to achieve the best possible settlement for our client.

Whilst it is important to stress that no amount of money will be able to make up for the trauma and consequences of having to experience any kind of abuse, we felt that this compensation would be able to help our client move on with her life.

Get in Touch

If you’ve experienced sexual, physical or any other type of abuse, get in touch with our team of Abuse Solicitors.

We’re experts in this area of law, meaning we can guide and support you through the claims process and keep you updated about the progress of your case at all times.