Your personal injury trust and accident compensation solicitor
Asbestos is the cause of diseases to those exposed in the workplace and in the general environment
You contract an asbestos related industrial disease and seek compensation. You then find the company you worked for no longer exists, and the insurance policy it had for liability to its employees did not cover asbestos exposure. What are you to do? Continue reading “Asbestos compensation can be won from a parent company”
I recently met an old friend, David Carter, who remains a great friend and representative to all those who worked in the Devonport Royal Dockyard at Plymouth. He has long been an adviser to those who have suffered the consequences of asbestos, in his trade union position before retirement, and as a helpful friend since. Continue reading “If you worked with asbestos keep a record”
Mesothelioma is a cancer caused by asbestos. Unlike most asbestos related conditions such as pleural plaque, diffuse pleural plaque, and asbestosis, the cancer called mesothelioma can be caused without a good deal of exposure to asbestos. There is often a period of many years between exposure to asbestos and the diagnosis of mesothelioma. The law has wrestled with the proper principles to apply in such cases. A level of pragmatism has been applied as it is not always possible to look back 30 or 40 years and identify where the exposure to asbestos occurred, and the extent of that asbestos exposure. Continue reading “Mesothelioma – environmental risk of asbestos”
Many headlines and reports were written about an asbestos decision made in The Court of Appeal on 8 October 2010.
The case was called the employers’ liability “trigger litigation.”
The issue was whether an insurance company should pay compensation for the employer found liable for the injury based on the time the injured person was exposed to asbestos, or the date when the injury starts to become apparent, for example, when a tumour actually starts to develop. That is a very important question for the insurer and very important for those injured by exposure to asbestos. Continue reading “More confusion for asbestos victims”
The need to trace the employers’ liability insurer of a company arises when a personal injury claim is to be made based on employment many years ago. Cases involving asbestos exposure and industrial deafness are the classic example.
If the employer company no longer exists, then the usual route is to track down their insurance company at the time. A Court will usually agree to restore the company to the “record” as the process is called, and the insurer will pay any compensation found to be due. No problem you might say, but what if you cannot find the insurance company. Continue reading “Tracing insurance company – industrial disease”
The inhalation of asbestos can cause disease in the lung tissues themselves and in the thin surface membrane that covers the lungs – the pleurae. Pleural plaques are discrete localised areas of fibrosis that typically affect the lining of the inner chest wall (the parietal pleura).
They arise from exposure to asbestos. To all intents and purposes pleural plaques currently found in the British population have been occupationally caused (in contrast to some parts of the world where environmental exposures to asbestos cause an important background incidence of plaque formation).
The degree of exposure sufficient to cause pleural plaques is much lower than that required to cause asbestos-related disease of lung tissue (for example asbestosis), and plaques are widely accepted to be the commonest medical manifestation of asbestos exposure in the population at large.
DAMAGES — Personal injuries — Hospice care — Deceased contracting lung cancer from exposure to asbestos in course of employment with defendant — Deceased’s estate seeking damages against employer and including claims on behalf of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren — Claim including costs of care incurred by hospice in providing gratuitous palliative treatment to deceased — Whether recoverable
In personal injury cases it is possible to recover for the care provided to an injured person. This care is usually provided by family members, and is care above and beyond what would normally be provided. The law gives it the name “gratuitous care.”
The calculation of gratuitous care is based on the hours of care provided multiplied by a non-commercial care rate. The rate is intended to represent the actual cost of paying someone to provide the care less the profit margin. In very rough terms, if the commercial rate in your area is £9 per hour, you could claim £6 per hour for the gratuitous care.
Any compensation recovered under the heading of gratuitous care is held in trust for the person who provided the care.
A clever extension of this principle was argued in a recent case where the care had been provided by a charitable hospice. The Judge saw the care from the hospice as similar to the voluntary care provided by a family member, and took the view any compensation recovered would be held in trust for the hospice. Continue reading “Recovering cost of hospice care in asbestos compensation case”