Tory Attacks On Asbestos Based Illnesses Victims Continues With Liberal Support
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) currently going through the House of Commons, and highly amended by the House of Lords; took a turn for the worst yesterday as the Liberal Democrats supported the government in rejecting the majority of the amendments.
Of crucial importance to people claiming compensation for contracting Absestos related illness which are fatal, and those disabled at work; was an amendment which would ensure they continue to have their legal costs covered by the defendents as part of a successful claim.
However, this amendment was voted down with a government majority of 36.
This now means that those winning their claim will have to pay their substantial legal costs out of any compensation won, and according to a study reported in Thorax magazine in 2007, the Wirral in the north west will be hit badly by the loss of this amendment.
The report entitled 'Incidence And Demographics Of Mesothelioma On The Wirral' concluded:
" Our figures demonstrate burden of mesothelioma is higher than the national average. There does not however appear to be any current evidence of a rise in cases in keeping with national predictions. Cases of mesothelioma on the Wirral are higher in areas of high deprivation and smoking rates and close to previous shipbuilding activity."
Hansard for yesterday 17th April records the debate:
“Lords Amendments 31 and 32 would respectively exempt proceedings which include a claim for damages for respiratory diseases and illnesses or a claim against an employer for damages for a disease, condition or illness (industrial disease cases) from the effects of clauses 43, 45 and 46.
This would mean that, in such cases, where a successful party’s claim is funded under a conditional fee agreement, success fees, after the event (ATE) insurance premiums and the costs incurred by certain bodies of insuring themselves against the risk of paying costs on behalf of their members to another party in the event of losing a claim would remain recoverable from the losing party.
The current situation, whereby success fees and ATE insurance premiums are recoverable from the losing defendant, would continue for these cases. Membership organisations would also be able to recover any self-insurance costs incurred in these cases.
The Speaker put forthwith the Question already proposed from the Chair (Standing Order No. 83F), That this House disagrees with Lords amendment 31.
The House divided:
Ayes 292, Noes 256.”
In voting accordingly, the Lords amendment was lost and the Government have its way in its aims of penalising those least able to defend themselves and making it much harder for any company not adhering to Health and Safety legislation and found to have injured or killed their employee(s) as a result fo them contrsacting an industrial disease; to be prosecuted.
You can read the full debate via Hansard by going to 17 Apr 2012 : Column 195 on the Hansard website page here
In a further blow, workers with crippling illnesses linked to asbestos are dying without compensation because of Government cutbacks and non-introduction of the new law speeding up compensation by letting sufferers claim from their employers’ insurers brought in two years ago.
Delays caused by job cuts at the Ministry of Justice means it will not now come into force until 2013, at the earliest. By then of course, sufferers will be liable to pay their own legal costs from their compensation flowing the passing of the LASPO Bill.
In the three-year delay almost 15,000 people with debilitating diseases such as mesothelioma will die, the Health and Safety Executive has predicted.
The Daily Mirror covered this news and quoted compensation lawyer Chris Shaw as saying:
“It’s disgraceful because they are terminally sick and they need that money. Insurance companies are the only ones profiting from the delay. The Government needs to rethink its decision. Many of these people do not have the luxury of being able to wait. It’s a disgrace.”
The Mirror article went on:
A year ago, his firm won a pay out for a mineworker who died over 40 years after being exposed to asbestos when a power station cooling tower collapsed.
A new Ministry of Justice report said that tackling the severe economic situation meant “very worthwhile but less immediately pressing law reform projects have, in some cases, been delayed.”
But Shadow Justice Minister Andy Slaughter said the hold-up was “another example of the Government favouring the interests of insurers over the victims”.
Source: Hansard / Daily Mirror
