Simon Ellis, from Hugh James solicitors, who is representing nearly 5,000 military personnel, called the development “ground-breaking”. His firm expects many more claimants to come forward.
“[Veterans] have had their careers prematurely ended, other employment opportunities denied to them, and their personal lives irrevocably changed,” he said.
“People who put their lives on the line in the service of our country should expect that they are not put in additional unnecessary danger by their employer.”
In a case last year which paved the way for the new scheme, James Barry, who is in his 30s, was awarded £700,000 after developing hearing loss and tinnitus.
The MoD accepted it had a “duty of care” to veterans and abandoned its argument that claims should have been brought sooner.
Barney Barnett, a 44-year-old ex-commando who joined the Royal Marines aged 16, also suffers from tinnitus and finds it hard to understand people when there is background noise.
“It affects me every day, I tend not to moan about it, I just get on with it,” he told the .
Mr Barnett served in Iraq and Afghanistan where he went on patrols from forward operating bases and was repeatedly involved in combat, sometimes as a sniper team commander.
He told the he had fired or been attacked with weapons including rifles, grenades, general purpose machine guns, light machine guns, 50 calibre machine guns, anti-tank missiles, mortars, and bombs.
Videos he shared from conflicts abroad capture the roar of armoured vehicles or helicopters landing, punctured by constant gunfire.
In one picture he can be seen wearing small earplugs, but he said that was a rare occurrence. He says he was either not given hearing protection or he was not able to wear it for operational reasons.
“If you get engaged by the enemy, whether that’s an IED, whether that’s indirect fire, whether it’s a burst of automatic fire, the last thing you have time to do is think about your hearing,” he said.
“Your main concern is those on the ground with you. Staying alive.”
