Christopher Johnson secures further important de minimis decision

Christopher Johnson acted for the successful claimant in Dudhill v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy unreported, 21/12/2018 (see here). The claimant suffered from noise-induced hearing loss of around 3 dB at 1, 2 and 3 kHz and around 24 dB at 4 kHz, as well as noise-induced tinnitus. The defendant sought to argue that these losses should be dismissed as de minimis. This argument was (rightly) rejected by the judge, who confirmed, after reviewing the authorities, that “the bar to overcome a de minimis defence is not a high one”.

The judgment builds on that in Evans v Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change and Anor. Unreported, 12/12/2017 (see here), in which Christopher also acted for the successful claimant.