Hundreds of injured former coal miners are being rallied to sue their legal adviser in the first coordinated legal action for alleged under-settling of government compensation claims, the Gazette can reveal.

John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, told the Gazette he is gathering potential claimants to sue their former legal adviser for negligence. Mann alleges that the legal adviser instructed miners not to lodge claims for a potentially lucrative type of damages, meaning that miners received less compensation than they were owed.

Mann alleges that thousands of former miners across the UK are collectively owed hundreds of millions of pounds for under-settled claims – far more than they are owed for fees that some legal advisers deducted from compensation awards.

He said: ‘We are talking about reclaiming money that people need in order to live. There could be more group actions following on from this one.’ He is currently looking for a lawyer to take on the case.

Mann also amplified calls for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which has responsibility for the compensation schemes, to conduct a full investigation into the alleged under-settlement of miners’ claims by solicitors and claims handlers. Earlier this year, David Anderson, Labour MP for Blaydon and chair of the All-Party Coalfield Communities Group, called for an investigation at a meeting with David Kidney, junior minister at the DECC.

The alleged under-settling of former miners’ claims under the coal health compensation scheme was examined by the Gazette in a recent special report (see [2009] Gazette, 30 July, 6).

A decade ago, the government launched two schemes to compensate former miners who, as a result of their mining work, contracted chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and vibration white finger (VWF). Under each scheme, legal advisers could claim for a number of different categories of damages. Mann’s allegation against the legal adviser relates to the category of VWF services damages, which were intended to compensate miners for the costs of assistance with everyday tasks.