De minimis – a practical step In a nut shell I propose that the explicit recognition of a two stage test of de minimis may lead to clarity of fact finding in difficult cases such as marginal noise induced hearing loss, and minor neck sprain. Further, by focusing on the first stage test, the significance of marginal exposures to risk can be resolved objectively. The conventional two-stage test The concept of de minimis is fairly straightforward to assess in cases of broken limbs, burns and other ‘impact’ events. Indeed it is so straightforward that the assessor and opposing parties may not make explicit that they are using a two stage test. In general when assessing injury: The first stage is to assess whether the state of the claimant after the event was/is ‘probably different’ to their state immediately prior to the event. Has anything changed? ‘Probably different’, is properly assessed on the balance of probabilities. If yes, the second stage is to assess whether the difference is su