With the cut-off date for the government compensation scheme for miners fast approaching, Paula Rohan discovers that many issues remain outstanding

Solicitors dealing with mining claims are run off their feet at the moment - but they will have to make the most of it while it lasts.

Law firms have had the luxury of running mining claims out of court and through a government compensation scheme since 1999, but the final cut-off date for registration of new claims is the end of this month.

The most common types of coal health claims concern respiratory diseases and vibration white finger (VWF).

The chest disease cases involve claims by former mining employees that they developed a lung injury through exposure to mine dust and fumes.

VWF is a condition caused by working with vibrating machinery, such as drills.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) took over liability for those cases in 1998 from the UK's largest mining employer, British Coal Corporation, following test cases that established that it had been negligent.

The DTI set up two schemes to deal with VWF and lung-disease claims after it was estimated that the sheer number of cases would have clogged the courts for up to 20 years; these were set out in a handling agreement signed in September 1999.

This was seen as a positive outcome by most lawyers.

'It took a long time to set up but now it works reasonably well - it's a good scheme for the men,' says Peter Evans, partner at leading Welsh firm Hugh James.

'Some MPs wanted a simpler scheme, but payments of 100,000-plus are not a rare event and the record payment is around 350,000, so it needs to be thorough.'

However, owing to the 31 March cut-off date for the respiratory claims - which are more common than VWF - time is running out for miners to bring new claims within the scheme.

Next month, they will have to start running all new cases on a conditional-fee basis through the courts.

'The main issue now is the registration of the new claims that are coming in,' says Anthony Patterson, who is national co-ordinator for British Coal litigation at leading trade union firm Thompsons.

'We are getting about 100 a day - and that's just Thompsons in Newcastle.

There are thousands upon thousands of new claims coming in - it is something like 440,000 chest-disease cases nationally.

We are working very feverishly at the moment.'

In fact, such is the demand for legal services in this field that Thompsons opened an office last month in the heart of Durham's coalfield.

The DTI scheme sets a ceiling of 1,800 per case for fees.

Firms still make a decent profit because solicitors in the field are highly specialised at pushing them through the system as quickly and painlessly as possible.

And then there is the volume - the most active firms are handling thousands of cases, which translate into millions of pounds of fees.

As of 7 January, Hugh James had received 35.8 million in fees from mining cases, followed by Thompsons on 34.5 million.

In total, 138 million has gone on solicitors' fees, while almost 1.9 billion has been paid out in compensation.

However, even with the most typical cases, problems can arise.

'[Clients] have to go through a medical exam and an assessment, but then there are a lot of policy issues that need to be cleared up,' Mr Patterson says.

'The two schemes are very complex.'

There have been particular problems with VWF claims involving co-defendants such as UK Coal or small mines, or miners who were working in British Coal pits for co-defendants as sub-contractors.

Nearly 20,000 claims involve this element.

'It is a complex area and there are particular problems co-ordinating claims involving contractors and other owners,' says Roger Maddocks, partner at national firm Irwin Mitchell.

'[But] we are now really getting to grips with the problems.'

In fact, law firms dealing with mining claims are often put into a campaigning role to get justice for their clients.

For example, Mr Patterson says: 'The government still refuses to compensate individuals who worked in surface jobs, doing jobs like picking stones out of the coal or washing it.

The conditions there were just as bad, if not worse, than actually working down the mine.

We are looking to bring some test cases to get those workers compensated.'

Hugh James is also involved with this campaign.

'We are confident because we believe the DTI position on this is illogical,' says Mr Evans.

Firms must also battle the DTI when it comes to VWF claims that fall into 'category 3' - where evidence of exposure needs to be produced.

'There are several thousand cases nationally where there is the potential for further litigation when it comes to establishing exposure,' Mr Patterson says.

Mr Maddocks agrees; he is looking forward to a High Court hearing next month involving the supervising judge, Lady Justice Smith, where the court will consider a number of issues, including whether exposure to vibration would have been tortious in certain situations.

'This has proved to be a big area of difficulty in terms of agreeing an approach, [as well as] procedurally and evidentially.'

Another problem - which Mr Patterson describes as possibly the worst part of the job - is that miners go through the process of getting compensation, but sometimes end up with little to show for it once deductions are made from damages to reflect that the claimant is a smoker, for example.

'Sometimes those discounts can result in a very small payment - in some cases it can be less than 100,' he says.

'It is very difficult to put it to a miner or a family that it is all they are getting.' Thompsons has lobbied the DTI to commit to making minimum payments, but this has so far been refused.

The average payment on respiratory disease is 7,715; for VWF, it is 8,354.

Claims management companies are also a bugbear for many solicitors involved in mining claims.

There are numerous horror stories floating around about claims handlers cold-calling people and even pretending to be from the DTI.

Last month, Labour MP Michael Clapham tabled an early day motion in Parliament, calling for more regulation of claims handlers as they do not come under the remit of the Law Society.

A Chancery Lane spokesman says: 'The Law Society has long argued that these firms ought to be regulated and we hope that will be one of the recommendations of the Clementi inquiry.'

There have also been allegations that some of the 500 or so law firms involved in mining claims have been charging more than the 1,800 and taking a slice from clients' damages.

The impression given by some MPs and newspapers that this is widespread does not appear to match the reality.

Since the Law Society relaxed complaints procedures in relation to overcharging in mining claims, it has received just 76 complaints.

On the positive side, there is the job satisfaction.

'The good thing about this is the gratitude you get from the miners or their families when you have seen the suffering as a result of the exposure and working in terrible conditions,' says Mr Patterson.

This has led many solicitors to call on the government to be flexible about the respiratory disease cut-off date for sick miners - although the DTI has indicated that it will not bend on this issue.

Mr Maddocks says this is a shame because the schemes have operated well.

'Effectively, they have been designed to provide claimants with, broadly, common law damages without having to incur the expense or delay that litigation would have involved.'

However, Mr Patterson points out that law firms will be operating within the scheme for a while yet, as outstanding cases will take years to clear from the system.

'People wait until the last minute to register their claims, so when the cut-off date passes you have all those claims that have really only just started,' he explains.

But he admits: 'Cases will eventually run off in terms of dealing with them to their conclusion.'

Mining claims have come a long way since personal injury solicitors battled their clients' corner in the 1990s.

Mr Evans recalls that even after the initial court ruling in their favour, the top firms were dealing only with around 600-700 cases.

Now they constitute the largest group action in the UK ever, and the DTI scheme is the biggest of its kind in the world.

Solicitors now expect the number of chest-disease claimants to reach 500,000 by the time the deadline closes.

However, despite the success of the scheme, lawyers operating in the field still maintain that many people are not getting the justice they deserve.

'It's my estimation that only half of potential claimants have come forward,' Mr Evans says.