Industrial disease victims exempt from legal reforms

SUFFERERS of industrial diseases will initially be exempt from the government’s reforms to no-win, no-fee legal claims, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly has said.

The minister said there would be a review of how the reforms work before a decision was taken on whether to make the sufferers of mesathelioma pay part of their compensation to their solicitors.

He said the government was also looking at ways of making it easier for sufferers and their solicitors to trace their former employer’s insurers to make a successful claim.

Currently, a losing defendant pays the winning claimant’s legal fees, which includes a success fee to their solicitor. Under the government’s reforms, the winning claimant will pay the success fee out of their compensation award but this will be limited to 25 per cent of the total payout.

Ministers hope the changes will discourage spurious no-win, no-fee claims, but campaigners have argued mesathelioma sufferers should be exempt because there can never be any dispute over the severity of their illness.

The Government has now decided to delay implementing the changes until a review has been carried out.

Mr Djanogly said there had been “careful reflection about the special case of mesothelioma sufferers”, adding the planned changes would not be introduced next April but at a “later date”.