Respiratory Diseases: claimant solicitors to fund minimum compensation for ex-pitmen.

Solicitors could sacrifice part of their own fees to fund a minimum compensation payment for ex-miners suffering from respiratory diseases under a plan being proposed by claimant solicitors to alleviate unfairness in the current system.


The claimant solicitors co-ordinating group (CSG) - a group of five solicitors negotiating on behalf of lawyers involved in miners’ claims - has already secured agreement in principle from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for solicitors to fund a £500 minimum payout for miners.


The scheme will be compulsory for all solicitors dealing with miners’ respiratory cases. Once discussions with the DTI conclude, agreement will be sought from the judge who presided over the High Court case in 1998 that allocated liabilities owed by the former British Coal to the government.

Maddocks: derisory offers

Under the formula set out for calculating the amount of compensation due, some miners’ entitlement can be reduced to nil because they were employed before 1954 - the start date for claims - or due to factors such as their smoking history. However, the solicitors still receive their fixed fee.

To avoid breaching rules preventing solicitors from sharing profits with clients, the CSG is seeking an arrangement whereby part of the annual inflationary rise in solicitors’ fees for mining claims would be withheld by the DTI and handed over to miners.


The five solicitors running the negotiations are Irwin Mitchell partners Roger Maddocks and Andrew Tucker in the north; Hugh James partners Peter Evans and Gareth Morgan in Wales; and Thompsons partner Lawrence Lumsden in Edinburgh.


Mr Maddocks said: ‘Solicitors have been concerned about the application of handling arrangements [under the formula], which have been producing very small offers. There is also concern that cases are getting stuck in the system because people do not want to accept derisory offers.


‘The DTI was asked to contribute to a minimum payment but it was not prepared to do so. We have canvassed opinion from the profession and no objections have been raised with us over the proposal.’


Anthony Patterson, national co-ordinator for British Coal litigation at Thompsons in Newcastle, said: ‘It is an injustice that some miners receive such low compensation - and it is not good for solicitors to have to put such low offers to them.’


Nigel Griffiths, parliamentary under-secretary of state for trade and industry, said in a parliamentary debate that active discussions on the scheme were in progress - but there would need to be full take-up of any minimum payment by all solicitors. He added that he was grateful for the Law Society’s serious approach to dealing with the minority of solicitors who had taken a percentage of miners’ compensation in addition to the fees paid to them under the coal health scheme.


A DTI spokesman said a decision on the minimum payment was expected in the next few weeks.