Injury lawyers urge government to rethink with miners
Despite the recent High Court ruling that
compensation will be paid out to miners when they first contracted
asbestos, the Government is spending millions in legal fees to fight the claims of sick minors.
Injury lawyers have said this will recreate past mistakes.
Miners suffering from chronic lung disease and knee problems were not included in a previous compensation scheme and are being forced to battle for compensation in the courts. It is thought that £5 million has already been spent by the government contesting the claims.
The governments hesitance to pay up will mean that any new schemes are likely to be difficult, thus requiring further payment to injury lawyers. John Mann, Mp for Bassetlaw said the situation was absurd:
“It's an absurd waste of public money. The lessons from the previous cases have not been learned [...]Instead of fighting them [the government] should create a simple non-legalistic scheme that would compensate miners with a modest amount of money for things like the breathing equipment they need.”
Injury lawyers handling the current claims are urging the government to reach a deal with the miners. Tom Jones a lawyer said: “If it is possible to devise a scheme that pays out to miners and avoids lawyers being involved, then that would absolutely be the right thing to do.”
Updated on 12/01/2009