Asbestos compensation

Leading lawyers in the field of industrial diseases, Irwin Mitchell, have today thoroughly welcomed the announcement by the Lord Falconer and John Hutton that the Government is to amend the Compensation Bill, reversing the offensive House of Lords ruling which found in favour of Corus UK Ltd. The judgement, in May, was successful in denying Mesothelioma widow, Sylvia Barker, the full compensation she had previously been awarded by a court for the painful death of her husband Vernon.

The Barker judgement had meant that victims of Mesothelioma would not get full compensation through the courts unless they are able to successfully sue all of their former negligent employers who exposed them to asbestos.

If the judgement had stood, employers who had exposed their workforce to Asbestos would not have had to pay 100% compensation if other culpable employers had gone out of business and/ or their insurers not found.

Asbestos compensation lawyer

Adrian Budgen, Head of Industrial Diseases Group at Irwin Mitchell which represents several hundred victims of the disease said This is great news for the thousands of victims of this cruel disease and redresses the balance in favour of the innocent victims of negligent working practices.

Mr Budgen continued If a person had had two or more employers who exposed them to asbestos negligently for an equal length of time but could not sue them all as some may have gone out of business or records not found, the victim would have only got a fraction of the compensation. In nobodies opinion can that ever be said to be fair

Concern regarding this judgement had been particularly high as the length of time symptoms from asbestos exposure take to manifest, in some Mesothelioma cases this can be between 10 and 50 years, meaning many guilty companies will have gone out of business.

Can we help you? If you think you or someone you know has a claim, our asbestos lawyers may be able to help - visit our asbestos disease claim section.