Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Acoustic shock in the workplace: High Court of England and Wales adopts Grindleford Criteria; Bevan v MoD dismissed: no defined incident, delayed onset, bilateral symptoms

Published on: 03 June 2025

Published by a LexisNexis PI & Clinical Negligence expert

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Article summary

Bevan v Ministry of Defence [2025] EWHC 1145 (KB) What are the practical implications of this case?

This ruling is poised to become a key authority on handling acoustic shock claims within occupational environments. The court squarely endorsed the Grindleford Criteria, devised in Parker et al (2020) (Parker, W. A. E., Parker, V. L., Parker, G., & Parker, A. J. (2020). Acoustic shock: an update review. The Journal of Laryngology & Otology, 134(10), 861–865), as the definitive framework for deciding whether an acoustic shock has occurred.

Practitioners should be aware that claims resting solely on exposure—absent a specific acoustic event, close temporal onset of symptoms, sufficient symptomatology, and lateral consistency—are unlikely to succeed. The judgment confirms that establishing causation requires a demonstrable mechanism of injury. Generalised or ongoing noise will not meet the threshold in an acoustic shock claim; the claimant must show that their symptoms stemmed directly from a particular incident and that the symptom pattern aligns with these criteria...

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