asbestos

At Thompsons we deal with hundreds of cases of people who have been exposed to asbestos and have suffered the harrowing consequences of an asbestos related illness. As a solicitor these cases are particularly difficult to deal with due to the impacts th...

  With each passing week we at Thompsons Solicitors hear more and more about asbestos in schools both from compensation claims, as well as general public concern about the risks regarding how widespread the problem is. Fortunately, there are camp...

  Many people think Asbestos related risks are a thing of the past and effect only labourers who worked with Asbestos when it was widely used pre-war. The reality however is very different and asbestos exposure and the risks related to this continue...

  The closure of two schools, one in Northern Ireland and the other in Wales, earlier this week due to the discovery of deadly asbestos unfortunately comes as little surprise.   As expert Scottish compensation Solicitors, Thompsons is well aw...

  I was shocked to hear of the latest tactic taken by insurance companies in dealing with claims for compensation by mesothelioma sufferers. The insurers argue that a claim is time-barred if a victim was originally diagnosed with pleural plaques, bu...

  A widow has been given leave to proceed with a personal injury action against two Scottish councils over the death of her husband from mesothelioma, despite the fact that the councils did not exist at the time he was exposed to asbestos. Mesoth...

  I was delighted to hear about the landmark Supreme Court decision which has demanded that insurers finally pay up to sufferers of asbestos-related diseases.  The court rejected a bid by insurance companies to overturn a Scottish law which giv...

  I was very surprised to see a company such as Marks & Spencer being fined for potential asbestos exposure.  The recent court case revealed that customers, staff and contractors were put at risk to exposure to asbestos in 2006 and 2007 in ...

I punched a red plasticine fist in the air from the back row of the Court of Session  on Tuesday when it was announced that we have won another milestone battle against AXA Insurance & Others in relation to Pleural Plaques.   Pleural plaqu...

  We won! ....I have a dream...  Never has so much ..... Ich bin ein berliner ...... The exact words of last night’s victory speech are unknown but what is known is that Thompsons are Firm of the Year 2011.   2 new records h...

  Asbestos related diseases are commonly associated with those who worked in the shipyards or who worked in industry in the last half of the 20th century.   Sadly however, I am seeing more and more cases on a daily basis of those seeking comp...

  My friends at Thompsons have been helping people who have asbestos related diseases for many years.  Many people think that asbestos exposure is an old problem as there are many rules and regulations in place to ensure that workers and member...

  Asbestos related diseases and conditions cause thousands of people to suffer injuries and symptoms every year. A lot of people who pursue compensation claims for asbestos related diseases and conditions were exposed to asbestos fibres in the workp...

  I turned even redder today when I heard the news today that John Lewis plead guilty to breaching the asbestos regulations only one year ago.   Despite numerous campaigns to highlight the dangers of asbestos in the workplace, John Lewis allo...

I never cease to be amazed by the lengths to which insurance companies will go to avoid paying compensation, particularly to victims of asbestos exposure, many of whom are terminally ill with deadly cancers like mesothelioma. A consortium of insurance...

  As I blog today my head is spinning due to the copious amounts of champagne consumed at last nights Firm Magazine Law Awards.   I wasn’t planning a big night but my plasticine plans were pleasantly distorted when Thompsons Managing Pa...

  Thompsons Solicitors will have a team of 25 running in the Great Scottish Run 10K in Glasgow on Sunday 5 September to raise funds for its chosen charity, Clydeside Action on Asbestos. CAA, which was formed in 1984 to provide advice and assistan...

  Former shipyard workers from Inverclyde who were recklessly and knowingly exposed to asbestos will be among the beneficiaries of a recent highly significant judgment in the Court of Session. Lord Emslie rejected a bid by major insurance comp...

  Occasionally the media bend the idea of raising personal injury claims into something seedy.  The tag line “compensation culture” is banded about and Solicitors are vilified for the part they play.   One such example is the...

  It’s good to see that the Department of Work and Pensions has decided to help victims of asbestos exposure trace the insurers of their former employers, the vast majority of whom have long since ceased to exist. These diseases, a miser...

Clydeside Action on Asbestos, pleural plaques victims and Frank Maguire, our Senior Partner at Thompsons Solicitors all welcomed the news that the bid by insurers to block the Scottish Parliament’s new law confirming the right to compensation of victims of pleural plaques has been blocked. Frank said: “This judgement states categorically that the Scottish Parliament was perfectly within its rights to pass this law and that is tremendous news for pleural plaques sufferers. We have an Act of the Scottish Parliament that establishes pleural plaques victims right to compensation and overturns the infamous House of Lords judgement to the contrary. Those responsible should now abide by the law. Thompsons have almost 1,000 pleural plaques cases which have been in limbo while the insurance industry pursued this ill-fated legal action and I now call on them to stop obstructing justice and not to try and put any more barriers in the way of victims seeking compensation. It was also noted that many insurance companies not involved in the court action, as well as the Ministry of Defence and British Shipbuilders, have been holding back on settling pleural plaques cases. They also should now meet their obligations and pay up. Frank went on to say “The Westminster Government should now enact similar legislation for the rest of the UK. It is ironic that pleural plaques sufferers in Gordon Brown’s constituency which includes Rosyth will now be able to claim compensation, but other MOD workers outside Scotland will not.” Suffers often have some form of breathlessness, but the biggest strain is the worry of developing a fatal condition like mesothelioma which happens with frightening regularity. Claimants mainly come from shipyard workers who had to cut asbestos boards – many stating that their employers kept them doing it long after they knew of the dangers telling them to use small blades rather than a buzz saws and to keep dust to a minimum. Out of 150 joiners who worked at the Caledonian joiners only 35 are still alive. The others all dying well before they were 65, most of them from mesothelioma or lung cancer.” This is a great day for the victims and their families.  

I was amazed that it was this week revealed that the UK Government have cited the views of an ‘expert’ who has never met a victim of asbestos related disease, as a reason for delaying their decision on whether pleural plaques sufferers are due compensation in England.

Thanks to a successful campaign by Thompsons, together with trade unions and asbestos charities, the Damages (Asbestos Related Conditions) (Scotland) Act 2009 was passed.  This change in the law meant that victims of pleural plaques in Scotland can pursue compensation for their condition provided they contracted their disease while working for a Scottish company.

I am sad to say that if you live down south the same rights do not exist.

The document relied on, Professor Robert Maynard’s report ‘Medical Aspects of Pleural Plaques’ to support the English point of view has been revealed to be “at best dubious” given that Professor Maynard has no experience in the field of Pleural Plaques!

Jane Howie of the Bradford Asbestos Victim Support Group commented:

“It happens time and time again that professors pretend to know what they are talking about and end up defending the indefensible”

The rights of asbestos victims to compensation is an area I feel very strongly about and I hope our campaigning friends down south get the right result soon.