Our background

We specialise in obtaining compensation for victims of industrial disease and clinical negligence.

Most of our work involves doing claims on behalf of asbestos disease sufferers who have developed mesothelioma, asbestos related lung cancer, asbestosis or asbestos related pleural thickening.

We also deal with many other industrial disease claims such as occupational asthma, silicosis, bladder cancer, dermatitis, vibration white fingers (HAVS) and deafness (NIHL).

We only act for the injured victims.We don't act for Defendants.

We have one of the largest asbestos  disease practices in the country, and have recovered millions of pounds in compensation for asbestos disease victims and their families. 

We have been involved in most of the important test cases relating to asbestos disease claims and have constantly fought to preserve and extend the rights of asbestos disease sufferers to compensation.

The firm was started in 1979 by John Pickering.The firm has now grown to 6 partners and 30 staff with offices in Manchester, Liverpool and Halifax.

We are an award winning practice and  received the accolade from Liverpool Law Society of Specialist Law Firm of the Year. We are consistently highly ranked by legal guides.The Chambers legal directory ranked us in the category, "One of the Best in the UK" for industrial disease claims. Follow this link for details about what law guides and clients have said about us.

click here for information about asbestos disease claims

click here to link to our mesothelioma website

click here to link to our clinical negligence website

 

Our Partners

CAROLANN HEPWORTH

Carolann has been a partner with John Pickering and Partners since May 1996  and is based in the Manchester office.

She specialises in industrial disease and personal injury claims. She contributes to a legal textbook on Occupational Illness litigation and has lectured on asbestos related illness She has settled large claims including a claim for over £2 Million. When a big insurer went bust a few years ago and the Board set up by the government to protect people when this happens refused to pay up, she immediately took them to court to make sure her client got his money. This was the first case of its kind.

Carolann is also acting on behalf of a client in the "trigger issue" test litigation. Click here to see Carolann's interview on BBC News after the successful High Court decision. She is a Fellow of APIL. Carolann is based in our Manchester office.

 

PAUL GLANVILLE

Paul is the managing partner and is based in the Halifax office. 

Paul qualified as a solicitor in 1992 and specialises in asbestos related industrial disease cases for claimants in the UK and abroad. He joined John Pickering and Partners in 1994, becoming a partner and setting up the firm's Halifax office in 1997. He has dealt with a number of leading cases including Quinn v MOD and Maguire v Harland & Wolff.

He is a member of the law society's personal injury panel and  is a Fellow of APIL.

He lives in Hebden Bridge with his partner and 3 children.

 

RUTH DAVIES

Ruth is a partner based in the Halifax office.

She specialises in asbestos disease claims but also deals with claims for industrial diseases such as dermatitis, noise induced hearing loss and vibration white finger. Having had a background in trade union accidents at work, she has a number of accident cases which she manages. She is particularly interested in asbestos cases where the time to claim has overrun and has had a number of successes in this area.

She also has a particular interest in lung cancer cases and has had a number of successful cases. She is a Fellow of APIL. Ruth was the lead solicitor in the pleural plaques test litigation.

 

KEVIN JOHNSON

Kevin is a partner based in the Liverpool office.

Kevin qualified as a solicitor in 1999 and specialises in employer liability, accident and disease claims and particularly asbestos disease claims on behalf of Claimants. Kevin acts for large numbers of dock workers, ship yard workers and Merchant Navy seamen, particularly from the Merseyside area. He is a member of the Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support Group and was a guest speaker at one their asbestos conferences. Kevin contributed to a chapter on asbestos disease claims in a legal textbook, 'Occupational Illness Litigation'. He is a Fellow of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and a member the Law Society's accredited personal injury panel, ATLA and the Australian Lawyers' Alliance. He was recently co-opted by APIL into a group of specialist asbestos litigation solicitors who were involved in advising the government on ways to speed up claims brought by mesothelioma sufferers. 

 

Neil is a partner based in the Manchester office.

Neil qualified in 1980 and spent many years dealing with claims on behalf of trade union members. Neil joined John Pickering and Partners LLP in 2003 and became a partner in 2007.  Neil is an asbestos litigation specialist and represented our clients, Mrs Rice and Mr Thompson in the important test case victory that enabled former dockers to claim against the government for developing asbestos disease. See Dockers win asbestos appeal.

 

 

 

FOZIA HUSSAIN

Fozia is a partner based in the Halifax office.

Fozia joined the firm in September 2002 after reading Law at The University of Leeds and completing her Legal Practice Course at Huddersfield. She trained with the firm, qualified as a Solicitor in November 2004 and became Partner in May 2010. Fozia specialises in bringing claims for compensation for victims of industrial diseases such as asbestos related illnesses, asthma and vibration white finger as well as victims of accidents. Fozia has wide experience of asbestos related claims, especially mesothelioma and lung cancer claims. She has pursued litigation against employers and occupiers for asbestos victims. Fozia also specialises in pursuing claims for those injured in accidents at work, in road traffic accidents and in any other setting. She has acted in many difficult and high value accident cases where the accident victims have been left severely injured and disabled. 

 

 

Our aims

To obtain the maximum amount of compensation for industrial disease and clinical negligence victims.

We do not do any other sort of work.

Unlike many other solicitors, we will not work for those who are responsible for the accidents or diseases, or their insurers. We believe this would damage the interests of our clients.

We guarantee that every client will have their case dealt with by a specialist solicitor, who has chosen a career in compensation work for injured people.

All of our cases, however small, are dealt with by qualified solicitors, who handle only compensation claims for victims of injury or disease. We put a great value on speed in completing cases. Delay often spells disaster. We start court actions early in those cases we think will succeed in court, and get them to trial as quickly as possible. This approach produces the greatest amount of compensation for our clients. We avoid legal jargon. Our letters to clients are written in plain English.

 

 

Quality checks

1.Legal Aid

We are committed to legal aid, and have a Legal Aid Franchise for each of our offices. This means that the Legal Services Commission has looked carefully at the way we do the work and the way our firm is organised, and have approved us. It means they trust us to do your case properly.

2.Law Society

All of our partners are members of the  Law Society's Personal Injury Panel. Only solicitors with a certain level of expertise and experience can belong to this panel.

3.APIL

All three of our offices are accredited by APIL (see News item: Association of Personal Injury Lawyers Accreditation).

4.Legal Guides

We feature in the Legal 500 and Chambers law guides, which recommend us in the type of work we do. 

We are on the recommended list of solicitors for Asbestos Support Groups nationwide.

 

 

Our clients

We act for victims of injury or industrial disease in all parts of this country. We act for people in other countries if they have a case which can be brought in this country. We have clients in Australia, Canada, South Africa, the USA, Malta, New Zealand, Spain and other countries. We represented 2200 South African asbestos disease victims in the largest group action ever brought in this country for asbestos disease.

 

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