Stories related to asbestos have featured regularly in the news recently as the Government debates the much anticipated Mesothelioma Bill. Below are two key papers on asbestos: Consultant Respiratory Physician Philip Barber discusses the dosage and probability considerations around asbestos: Asbestos_Attribution_and_Lung_Cancer_-_Dosage_and_Probability_Considerations.pdf Tony Whitston, Chair of the Asbestos Victims’ Support Groups Forum UK, offers his opinions…
Poor lighting is a factor in many falls at work, this can be caused either by lack of lighting or if the lighting is not properly maintained. Recently the problem of poorly maintained lighting at an Amazon warehouse in Swansea was exposed in the BBC TV programme Panorama which, using undercover cameras, reported that the…
In a road traffic accident, where a Claimant fails to wear a seatbelt, an insurer will almost always seek to deduct 25% from the compensation claim. In reality it is not as straightforward as an insurer would have you believe. Firstly the burden of proving the deduction rests firmly with the opponent. Secondly the standard…
Richard Meggitt, Solicitor in the Serious Injury Team at ASD, acted for a child in Rotherham who sustained a serious brain injury. The child was struck by a car when he was returning home from school. He was taken to Sheffield Children’s Hospital by ambulance and was an inpatient for a number of weeks. The…
Award: £90,000.00 Location: Lincolnshire Mr D, from Louth in Lincolnshire, mistakenly believed the insurers for the company who were to blame for his accident at work would quickly settle his claim for compensation. Mr D, a fencer, fell into an unguarded ditch at a construction site in Yorkshire. He fell awkwardly trapping his left arm…
A Finance Director of a former major courier company in Sheffield has been awarded £75,000 after falling downstairs at work. The claimant, known as Mrs W for legal reasons, was walking downstairs when she caught her foot on a defective carpet tile and fell down approximately 12 steps. Her injuries includes two fractures to her…
The media have reported widely on research from Sheffield Hallam University which indicates that a critical consequence of the welfare reforms is how unequally they will be felt around the country. For some areas the cuts will reverberate; for others they will hardly be noticed. Worryingly, the predicted worst affected areas also happen to be…
Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson told the Transport Select Committee this week that Claims Management Companies should be closed down, as the selling of claims by insurance companies may have contributed to exaggeration and fraud. “Aggressive marketing by Claims Management Companies is at the core of the problem,” he said.“These companies add nothing to…
Lord Freud, the minister responsible for steering the Mesothelioma Bill through Parliament, was given a hard time by peers yesterday (Wednesday) when the Bill was debated in Grand Committee. There was heated debate about what is perceived to be an arbitrary start date for the scheme of 25 July 2012, and lack of sympathy for…
More than 107,000 people die per year from Asbestos related illness. It is the #1 work-related cause of death Deaths set to peak in 2016 Asbestos has come under tight controls in the past forty years and yet it’s still the number one cause of work-related deaths in the UK. The nature of illnesses relating…
