header-logo header-logo

Asbestos exposure

10 December 2009 / Rehana Azib
Issue: 7397 / Categories: Features , Personal injury
printer mail-detail

Rehana Azib explains why 2009 has been a bad year for defendants

There has been a flurry of recent asbestos exposure related cases providing largely good news for claimants in the context of the burden of proving causation and risk.

In Diane Willmore v Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council [2009] EWCA Civ 1211, [2009] All ER (D) 209 (Nov) the Court of Appeal was asked to address the questions of the burden of proof a claimant must surmount in order to establish material or substantial contribution to the risk of harm. It was held that there was no such thing as a safe dose of asbestos and therefore it was insufficient to eliminate one source of exposure to asbestos if another remained.

The circumstances of asbestos exposure in this case are unusual in that they do not involve exposure in the course of employment. The claimant was a former pupil of the defendant local authority school. There were three circumstances in which the trial judge had found that the claimant had been exposed to a risk

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
back-to-top-scroll