MPs lobby to exclude solicitors from asbestos compensation scheme
MPs are lobbying prime minister Gordon Brown to exclude solicitors from any government-run scheme to compensate workers for asbestos-related pleural plaques.
A group of Labour MPs closely involved with a parliamentary bill on the matter have held ‘frequent’ private meetings with Brown and senior ministers. Jim Sheridan, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, a co-sponsor of the bill who is involved in the talks, told the Gazette this week: ‘We don’t want lawyers making a business out of other people’s misfortune.’
Dennis Skinner, MP for Bolsover, who is also a member of the group, said the government should not follow the model of the 1999 coal health compensation scheme, whereby some solicitors earned ‘millions’ for handling former miners’ lung and hand disease claims.
Whether or not a government-run scheme is set up depends on new legislation being passed to supercede a House of Lords ruling in 2007, in which the law lords decided that compensation for the thickening of the lung condition known as pleural plaques should not be available. The Damages (Asbestos-Related Conditions) Bill has already passed through the House of Commons, and had its first reading in the House of Lords in October.
Skinner told parliament last month: ‘We do not want a scheme that will be similar to the one that the miners had for chest disease and vibration white finger [which] forced every miner to have a separate solicitor. The net result was that the solicitors got a lot of money out of it.’
Skinner suggested that any scheme should ‘steer clear of solicitors making a small fortune out of every case’.
Comments
Can you smell it too?
So who will champion the rights of the people unfortunately affected? Or will the government impose a "take-it-or-leave-it" scheme whereby the affected will receive less than they should be entitled to if independently represented?
It doesn't take an evil genius bent on UK personal injury domination to realise anybody could set up a separate shop to "advise" the affected, including P.I solicitors/practices
And need I remind that it was the government that set (imposed) the solicitors' remuneration for each case under the "1999" compensation cases? Or were they expecting solicitors to work for free despite the poorly remunerated case rates? If the government hadn't ruined the health of hundreds of thosands of miners then there would not have been the need to establish the scheme and pay solicitors for each of the claims. The government created the original problem and now is shifting the blame for the flawed scheme IT created (as it went along)!
But back in the present ..... a "government" run scheme for compenation from the "government" arising from employment with a former "government" body and no chance of independent legal advice ..... I smell a rat! Get ready for those miniscule fixed compensation payments guys!
Pleural plaques
I understand the comments from "The Equalizer" but we already have one tariff compensation scheme operating in the country which has no funding for legal representation - see the CICA scheme. The timing of this report is difficult following James Dean's report on this site about the former partners at Beresfords and their failed appeal against being struck off the roll.
We can all see how these schemes can be abused and what terrible damage it does to the reputation of the profession and this is something that must be guarded against whilst ensuring fair and proper compensation is available to the victims.