The Complete Guide to Injury While on Military Service: When Does Compensation Come?

Compulsory service soldiers go on vacation where injuries and accidents can occur.

Adv. Tamar Sivan, an expert in representing members of the security forces, explains who the body that should address them is.

Liron Tal, in collaboration with Zap Legal

27/04/2022

Wednesday, 27 April 2022, 11:12

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The Disability Act refers to the rights of military servants - whether in compulsory, permanent and reserve service.

The law also applied to security bodies such as the police, the IPS and the GSS.

That is, as long as the injury is within the service.

When it comes to vacation injuries during military service, there is a special supplemental law that applies only to conscripts and gives them "extension coverage" for vacation time as well.

Therefore, people who serve permanently and in other security bodies should have personal accident insurance.

We inquired with Adv. Tamar Sivan, a partner in the Tzedekoni-Sivan law firm, one of the leading law firms in Israel representing security forces, when a soldier was injured during a vacation recognized by the Ministry of Defense.

First and foremost, the law that allows compensation for vacation injuries only applies to injuries (Photo: ShutterStock)

Injury of a soldier on vacation - applies only to injuries

in the first place, the law that allows compensation for injury on vacation applies only to injuries.

In some cases, it is also possible to claim non-sabotage damage if there is a causal connection to the sabotage caused during the vacation.

According to Adv. Sivan

, this is a gray area because there is a debate about what is considered damage from an injury.

"The soldier will claim that it was caused by the sabotage and therefore the responsibility lies with the Ministry of Defense," explains Adv. Sivan.

Another limitation on eligibility for injury recognition is time.

Coverage under the Disability Act is given only for the first 30 days of leave, so that if a soldier goes on a long leave and is injured after the said period of days, he is not entitled to demand recognition.

Soldiers who are injured during work while on vacation are also not covered by the Disability Law, "unless it is a job approved by the army," explains Sivan

.

So the responsibility for the injury falls on the sports organization. "

" Road accidents are included, but within the limitations that exist in the Compensation for Road Accident Victims Law.

In other words, if a soldier drove a vehicle knowing that he did not have insurance or a license, he would not be entitled to coverage under the Compensation for Road Accident Victims Law, nor under the Disabled Persons Law. "

Criminal Involvement During Injury During Vacation

A guy was beaten in a brawl while on leave from service and injured.

The Ministry of Defense refused to recognize him on the grounds that there was an exception in the Disability Act for injury while involved in criminal acts.

The same soldier did not give up and turned to Adv. Sivan.

"We were able to present the police material and prove that he was not the initiator of the fight but the one who tried to separate.

It succeeded and he gained recognition, "says Adv. Sivan.

"Excluding a criminal act also includes an unreasonable or deliberate act, such as a dangerous game with a weapon. In such cases, there is no entitlement to coverage under the Disability Law unless proven otherwise, as in the case of the same soldier," adds Adv. Sivan

. "Please note that the Disability Law does not apply to an injury that occurred during a trip abroad." Soldiers are advised to take out travel insurance abroad if they leave the country. The exception is a lone soldier who travels to visit his family and is included under the Disability Law, "emphasizes

in addition to all these exceptions, you should know that even if you have been recognized for injury on vacation, you will not necessarily receive any compensation.

"The threshold condition for receiving compensation is that the degree of disability as a result of the sabotage will be at least 20%. Below this level, there is no compensation of any kind."

"Not necessarily. In most types of injury, we still recommend going through the process and regulating the recognition of the sabotage so that the soldier is registered as an IDF invalid - even if the recognition at this stage gives nothing.

This is because if the situation worsens in the future, it will be possible to increase the degree of disability and receive compensation.

The soldier will have an address to contact.

"Of course it depends on the type of injury so we give advice on the body of each case. If a soldier has lost the tip of a finger, it is likely that his disability percentage will not increase over the years and the process is not necessarily worthwhile for him. It will be much harder. "

According to the Disability Act, there is a statute of limitations and this also applies to injuries while on vacation.

The limitation period begins at the end of three years from the date of discharge from the service during which the injury occurred.

At the same time, Adv. Sivan clarifies that there is a way to extend the statute of limitations through the definition of "registered injury." This means that

there is documentation of the injury.

"Beyond that, it is important to note that the coverage for an injury on vacation came into effect in 1988. Anyone who arrives today and wants to acknowledge an injury that occurred this year will not receive an answer," she says.

"An example case is a soldier who was injured on vacation from a friend's bullet. He had all the documents then and at the time he did not think to do anything with it. Today the case bothers him very much but since the incident took place before 1988, there is nothing to do about it."

Representation of a lawyer in cases of injury on vacation allows the client to receive all the information (Photo: ShutterStock, Supavadee butradee)

Double compensation for injury on vacation from

a soldier on vacation goes out to play on the municipal basketball court and the basketball facility falls on him and hits him.

On the face of it, he is entitled to compensation from the Ministry of Defense entrusted to the army, and also from the municipality that placed the unsafe basket - right?

The answer to this, in the best of military jargon, is negative - there is no double compensation.

"In this case and in any other case of double liability, the soldier will have to make a choice about the person he turns to," says Adv. Sivan. ".

" There are different types of arrangements and therefore it is not possible to compare comprehensively.

There may be a case of two people with the same degree of disability and each will be willing to take a different route.

The choice is between a civil tort claim and a claim for recognition before the Ministry of Defense. "

"The Ministry of Defense is a lifelong connection, which means that if there is a worsening of the condition or the injured person goes in later for surgery, goes out on sick days or needs orthopedic shoes for example - he has someone to contact. You can update the Ministry of Defense "The whole system is one-time. After receiving compensation in a certain amount, that's it."

In addition, Adv. Sivan notes, in the Ministry of Defense, the payments are given for life as part of a monthly pension. In a tort claim, all the money is received at once.

Since I estimated that the same injury could worsen, I recommended that she take the route of the Ministry of Defense.

She preferred to file a tort claim because she was standing before a wedding and needed all the money in hand to buy an apartment. "

Another difference between the tracks, Adv. Sivan emphasizes, is that in the Ministry of Defense the amount of compensation is uniform and determined by degree of disability and there is no weighting of additional aspects. The same percentage of disability. In a tort claim, on the other hand, the damage caused to the injured person's earning potential as a promising footballer is taken into account.

Another significant difference between the two tracks is that in tort claims it is possible to receive compensation "Many people are afraid of dealing with the Ministry of Defense and of having to ask and fight for any need that may arise over the years," says Adv.

Sivan

, but nevertheless notes that "the Ministry of Defense is indeed a large and cumbersome body, but One that has made great efforts in recent years to become more efficient and improve the service. "

According to Adv. Sivan, representing an attorney in cases of injury on vacation allows the client to obtain all the information, coordinate expectations and make an informed choice between applying to the Ministry of Defense and filing a tort claim.

"In the Ministry of Defense track, the lawyer takes care of preparing the case in the most professional and thorough way so that the client can receive the maximum percentage of disability to which he is entitled. The person who determines the percentage of disability is a medical committee of the Ministry of Defense."

"It is natural that in such cases the committee feels that it is keeping a close eye on the fund, but there is also a continuous improvement in this area, both in relation to the examinee at the time of the examination and in the transparency of the procedure. It is important to remember Disability. "

She said, "An unrepresented person who is unfamiliar with the regulations may prolong talking about completely irrelevant things, not present important documents and then find that he has not been assigned a disability as he expected. Here our job, as lawyers, is to focus claims and present the case in the most relevant way The best result. "

Adv. Sivan further says: "It is not easy to reach a 20 percent disability, certainly without in-depth knowledge of the regulations.

If we apply for recognition of disability percentages on more than one section, the weighting works to our detriment.

For example, in a weighting of 10 and another 10 percent disability the result is only 19 percent disability. "

Even if you did not get the desired result, it is important to know that a medical committee can be appealed to a higher medical committee and then to a district court. Of regulations.

"Yes, some of them also succeed. On the other hand, there are those who come to us after approaching the process on their own and starting to get involved. Sometimes they reach a point where we can no longer help and then they get stuck with a bad result."

This is a legal proceeding for all intents and purposes and an ordinary person can not claim later "I was wrong", "I was confused" or "I did not know:" For this there are the professionals.

We have been in this field for more than 30 years and deal almost exclusively with such lawsuits and a constant desire to achieve good results.

"A tort attorney who has no understanding of the field will not be suitable for dealing with such an issue. On the other hand, we can also handle tort claims. IDF claims for the disabled is a very specific legal area that requires a deep understanding of the law," concludes Adv. Sivan.

For contact and more details click here or by phone 03-6813322

Article courtesy of Zap Legal

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• Torts and accidents

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• Injuries

• Army