Report to the People
8th May 2006
Mesothelioma
Judgement
In former heavy industrial communities
like ours, the only reward many got for years of hard work in difficult
conditions was an asbestos-related disease like Mesothelioma.
As you know, this is a particularly aggressive, painful cancer, for which
there’s no cure and which kills in a year.
But, as if that wasn’t bad
enough, employers’ insurance companies then use every trick in the book to
stop victims getting the compensation they deserve.
The worst tactics, such as
spinning out cases until the victim dies, were curtailed three years ago with
the announcement that personal injury cases for terminally ill asbestos
sufferers would be fast-tracked. Last
week’s House of Lords judgement, though, will have put the smiles back on the
insurance companies’ faces.
In essence, the Lords have
upheld the insurer’s argument that compensation should be limited if a victim
has had several employers who exposed him to asbestos.
They failed to listen to Lord Rodger, the one dissenting judge, who said
that this goes against the important Scots law principle that liability could
not be apportioned.
The most likely outcome of
this ruling is that victims or their families will need to fight harder and wait
longer to receive less.
Surely it is fairer to get
this compensation to those who need it quickly, so that their final months can
be made a little more comfortable. Rather
than forcing cancer victims to sue a string of insurers, why not let the
insurance companies spend years and millions suing each other for a change?
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