MP Continues Fight for Justice for Pleural Plaques Families
Jarrow MP Stephen Hepburn has tabled a House of Commons motion demanding justice for the widows of pleural plaques victims. Pleural plaques are a type of scarring on the outside of the lungs caused by asbestos exposure.
The motion says: “This House deeply regrets the unreasonable and unjust Government decision to deny compensation to widows of pleural plaques victims who have waited years to receive £5,000 in compensation but have sadly died before the funds were eventually released. It believes that these widows played a very important role in sustaining their partners through their overlong struggle for compensation of rights”.
The Government recently, after many years of pressure, introduced a scheme for payment of sums of up to £5,000 to people following a Law Lords decision in 2007 to halt compensation claims to those with this asbestos related condition. Payments are not however made to the families following the victims’ death. The MP’s motion urges the Government “to seek ways to recognise the plight of these widows and to allow the payment to accrue to the next of kin, possibly as an ex-gratia payment on humanitarian grounds”.
As solicitors specialising in asbestos compensation claims we have obtained some clarification of the scheme from the Ministry of Justice which confirms that claims will not be accepted from widows of pleural plaques victims. Clarification of the scheme can be seen on our website. This scheme only applies to England and Wales. In Scotland the Parliament changed the law back to what it had been before the House of Lords decision and lawyers there can still pursue claims for compensation for pleural plaques through the courts.
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About John Pickering and Partners LLP
John Pickering and Partners LLP- Specialist mesothelioma compensation solicitors
We are a dedicated personal injury law firm who do not do other types of work. We specialise in claiming damages for asbestos sufferers. We have been handling compensation claims for industrial disease for over 30 years. Most of our work involves acting for asbestos disease victims who suffer from mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and pleural thickening. We only act for the sufferers of asbestos diseases and never act for the organisations that caused the asbestos exposure or their insurers. We have an ethical approach and donate 10% of our net profits every year to good causes that help asbestos sufferers. We have set up a charitable trust to help to fund medical research into mesothelioma and various organisations that help and support asbestos sufferers and their families.
Find out more about our donations to good causes. We have also been involved in most of the landmark judgments that shape this area of law. Find out more about us or our reported cases. We are on the panels of several asbestos support groups and are ranked highly by legal guides. Find out more about what others have said about us.
John Pickering and Partners LLP is a niche legal practice that has represented Claimants in the leading asbestos "test cases" in the last ten years. The firm represented Sylvia Barker in Barker v Corus (UK) Plc, a case that highlighted the legal tactics of employers and insurers trying to cut back their compensation liabilities to mesothelioma sufferers, and which prompted the amendment of the Compensation Act 2006 to ensure full compensation for mesothelioma claims. The firm represented two of the three Claimants in the landmark Fairchild appeal, in which the insurance industry tried unsuccessfully to block compensation altogether for mesothelioma sufferers unable to identify which of two or more sources of asbestos exposure had caused their illness.
The firm represented Alice Jefferson, a mesothelioma sufferer, whose illness and compensation claim against Cape Asbestos were featured in the important documentary "Alice: A Fight For Life." Shown by Yorkshire Television in July 1982, the programme was an important catalyst for legal change and public awareness of the plight of mesothelioma and other asbestos disease sufferers and a prompt for important legal reform.
Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that affects the lining of certain bodily organs. It most commonly affects the lining of the lungs (the pleura) but it can affect other areas including organs in the abdominal cavity (the peritoneum).
More than 2,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year in the UK and there is one mesothelioma death every five hours. The number of deaths from mesothelioma increased from 153 in 1968 to 1,969 in 2004 and is expected to peak at 2,450 between 2011 and 2015.
The first Action Mesothelioma Day was launched on 27th February 2006. Its objectives were to raise awareness about mesothelioma, to improve the treatment and care of mesothelioma patients, and to lobby for better funding for research into mesothelioma and for the protection and education of people who may be exposed to asbestos.
If you need advice about an asbestos related illness, contact us now for information about making a claim for compensation.
Contact us to find out more about your entitlement to claim compensation if you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer or pleural thickening.
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