Asbestos victims face new hurdles

A GOVERNMENT bid to cut business red tape could mean dying asbestos victims losing vital time, a legal expert has warned.
From this week, employers are no longer legally required to store their insurance records for 40 years.

This means those suffering from the killer condition mesothelioma could find it harder to trace insurance records.

Roger Maddocks, leading industrial lawyer at Irwin Mitchell Solicitors, Newcastle, warns time could be lost in compensation claims involving people dying of mesothelioma, an industrial disease caused by exposure to asbestos, which afflicts many ex-industrial workers in South Tyneside.

He said: "Employers will no longer have to keep backdated evidence of their Employers' Liability Insurance, and this means we will not easily be able to identify the insurer responsible for the time at which exposure occurred."

Mr Maddocks has argued that following the law change, insurers should be obliged to contribute towards a central pot of money to provide a safety net for victims when insurers cannot be traced.

And in another move, fresh calls were made this week for a controversial legal decision on pleural plaques to be overturned.

Pleural plaques is scarring of the lung issue, caused by exposure to asbestos, which can lead to full-blown mesothelioma. But the right to compensation for pleural plaques was overturned by the House of Lords last year.

The Government later published a consultation paper in response to mounting pressure to either overturn the decision or provide an alternative solution for those diagnosed with the condition.

Martin Bare, past president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, said the fact the Scottish Parliament had already proposed legislation to overturn the decision would make it 'inherently unfair' if Westminster did not follow suit for victims in England and Wales.
He said: "The Government should follow the Scottish Parliament's lead and overturn the Lords' decision."