PI lawyers slam government's u-turn
Personal injury lawyers have slated the government’s U-turn on mesothelioma.
The government has decided to revoke the exemption of mesothelioma claims from the success fees and after-the-event (ATE) premium elements of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO).
A Ministry of Justice consultation last year asked whether ss 44 and 46 of LASPO should be brought into force for claims for mesothelioma claims—a life-threatening lung disease caused by contact with asbestos. Ministers have now decided to remove the exemption.
Opposition MPs criticised the decision during a Commons debate on mesothelioma this week, and claimant lawyers have also expressed disapproval.
Matthew Stockwell, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), says: “It’s impossible to rationalise why dying people should have to pay for the inherent risks of pursuing redress, when they certainly never asked to be in a position where they need compensation.
“Mesothelioma claimants know they are going to die, and they know they have to race against the clock when they make a claim. They are simply trying to make their last few months more bearable, and to ensure that their families will have some security when they’re gone. If ever a claimant needed full compensation, it is surely the claimant facing a death sentence just because he turned up for work."
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