Law Society chief executive Des Hudson last week set out the case for Chancery Lane's decision to offer miners ex gratia payments.


Speaking at the Society's Council meeting, he said there is an urgent need to counter the harm that the wrongful deduction from damages owed to miners under the government's compensation scheme has inflicted on the profession as a whole.



The payments - to be made to miners whose solicitors have not yet paid awards for inadequate professional service - are expected to cost £40,000. An order from the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) is needed to make an award enforceable, and some firms are deferring payment until a hearing.



Council member Brian Hughes said some of his constituency members were 'unhappy that the Law Society had created a precedent by, for the first time, stepping in and making a payment to a complainant while the firm involved had still to appear before the SDT'.



But Mr Hudson said the question of miners' compensation was causing more harm than any other issue, with some MPs raising it time and again.



Jonathan Rayner