Asbestosis claim win after 16 year battle

A retired lagger has won significant compensation for asbestosis when a second bite at compensaiton won him life changing money.

Corries asbestos claims team are one of the few in the UK who keep a register for asbestos pleural plaque victims. Read here how our investment in such victims paid off for this man.

Call Corries asbestos team for a FREE friendly chat on 0800 083 7839.

Asbestosis claim -the history

Our client Mr E first approached us in 2006 when he was diagnosed with asbestos disease.

He had been told he had got asbestos problems. With a working life as a lagger, then the development of problems was no surprise to him and at 60 years of age he had already seen former workmates die due to asbestos exposure.

We looked into matters for him. We approached one of the leading asbestos medical experts. He confirmed that Mr E had pleural plaques.

His timing was off as compensation for that condition had stopped.

Asbestos pleural plaques -why can I not get compensation?

Compensation for pleural plaques started in the late 1970’s. Sums typically up to £15,000 were paid for cases of this disease.

Insurers grew incensed that as most asbestos disease victims get plaques and argued that as they are a marker of asbestos disease then this should not attract compensation.

A long and hard fought litigation between claimant solicitors and insurers went through the court system to the House of Lords. Sadly the final court found for the defendant insurance companies and stopped compensation. The parliaments in Scotland and Northern Ireland introduced acts of parliament to reverse this decision. The English government did not.

A series of cases were then heard in Newcastle where the judge found in any similar cases of thickening or asbestosis then a disability of at least 1% had to be proved..

In most cases pleural plaques and mild disease does not cause recognised disability.

The second fight for compensation

Mr E continued to have chest problems. As the years passed he found he was able to do less and less. He went to the doctors and had x rays and scans. On various occasions he was asked about his work.

At no point was he told to look into compensation.

Mr E had been on our pleural plaque register since 2006 and we had kept his file and kept in touch with him. In late 2019 we asked him how he was. In 2020 matters were looked into and it seemed that he now had ASBESTOSIS.

Our register has shaken down many similar cases in the past this like this one https://www.corries.co.uk/asbestosis-claim-win-pleural-plaque-victim-third-times-charm/

So we got to work.

Asbestosis-no easy wins

With a long history of lagging work from 1961 to 1974 it seemed to us that the case was nailed on. The claimant worked for over 10 different companies of which only seven could be traced.

We put his statement of exposure together and used one or our panel of asbestos medical experts. The expert found he had asbestosis and was about 20% disabled due to that condition.

We put the case to the defendants and hoped that they would see sense and settle the case quickly.

Sadly we were wrong.

Asbestosis -let the court decide

Despite our best efforts the defendants would not simply see sense. They would not coordinate and those that did engage with us tried arguing the case was out of time.

We argued that firstly he could not claim compensation in 2006 due to the insurance industry’s own fight to deny compensation which was working through the courts. Secondly Mr E had not been told of any disease by his treating doctors. Thirdly even if we were wrong then all seven defendants that were left had been sued numerous times before and were not prevented from dealing with this claim.

We put together a comprehensive and detailed statement going over events from 2006 to date and fought this issue on every front. We got a barrister who works in the field who saw and supported our argument and helped us put the case to court.

Our robust approach paid for and soon after the service of proceedings and after almost three years of battling from when we reactivated matters, we got a good settlement.

Mr E is pleased and he has finally got compensation.

Asbestosis -comment

Victoria Symonds, senior solicitor at Corries Solicitors who won the claim commented

“Corries commitment to asbestos victims is unrivalled.

Mr E is one of many thousands of people who are on our pleural plaques register. For many we see that they see out their days happily without being affected by further asbestos disease. Mr E was sadly not so lucky. Given his work as a lagger this was not surprising.

After all these years he finally has justice. I hope he does not get worse. At 77 years of age he has got some solace and a sum of money to help him day to day.

It is all to easy for asbestos victims to be scared off from making a claim due to limitation. Let me assure you that at Corries we do not scare that easily”

Asbestosis- contact us today

Our asbestos team are waiting for your call or e mail. We offer a FREE confidential call service on 0800 083 7839. We are happy to make enquiries into a claim if you have had your case turned down by solicitors before.

Call us today.