The Abbott cohort of claims consists of approximately 5500 Claimants who bring claims for noise-induced hearing loss, said to have been caused by exposure to excessive noise in the military.

Breach of duty, limitation and combat immunity were compromised long before the trial; however, various generic issues pertaining to medical causation and assessment of damages remained outstanding.

It was intended that those generic issues would be resolved by the trial of six test cases, with the determinations made providing a framework for the resolution of the remaining claims in the cohort.

Two of the six test cases settled very shortly before trial, and two of the Claimants applied to discontinue their claims during the course of the trial. In a judgment handed down on 31st October 2025, Garnham J confirmed that he was content to determine the outstanding generic issues using the remaining two test cases, the expert and lay evidence in which had already been heard by that stage.

He went on, over a period of two weeks, to hear generic evidence from a suite of experts to cover the full spectrum of the generic issues, before being provided with written and oral closing submissions.

He has now retired to consider his judgment, which is expected to be handed down in/around March 2026.

Kate Longson is instructed as junior counsel to the Ministry of Defence.

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