Report to the People
26th March 2007
Final
Justice for Asbestos Victims
It’s
a sad fact that former heavy industrial communities like ours are far too
familiar with the legacy of asbestos. And
we are also far too familiar with the outrageous injustices which victims and
their families face when they seek the compensation they deserve.
Since the Scottish Parliament was established, though, we have, one by one, challenged these inequities.
We
highlighted the insurance industry’s delaying tactics and attempts to spin
cases out until the victim died: using blanket denials and forcing sufferers to
prove, for example, that the QE2 is a liner built at John Brown’s.
Court rules were also changed so that cases brought by terminally ill
people could be fast-tracked.
And,
last Wednesday, another wrong was righted. MSPs voted unanimously to pass new laws which make it easier
for Mesothelioma victims and their families to be properly compensated.
Sufferers of this particularly vicious asbestos-related cancer can now
seek recompense without invalidating claims by their families after their death.
The
new laws end the scandal of sufferers being forced to choose between making
their last few months more comfortable by settling their claim while alive, or
not claiming so that their relatives can secure a greater award.
These
victims’ only reward for years of hard work has been a terminal illness and
humiliation by the legal system and insurance industry.
It’s too late to do anything about the former, but I’m proud that, as
these law reforms make it onto the statute books, the latter is being consigned
to the history books.
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