Mesothelioma and asbestos disease FAQs
Fieldfisher will offer a "no-win, no-fee" agreement which means that if your claim does not succeed we will not ask you for payment and if you win your claim, the defendants will pay the costs.
Fieldfisher are specialists in this area and understand the needs of our clients, not all firms will offer the same terms under a No-win, No-fee agreement so be careful who you instruct to advise you.
Yes you should claim to hold those responsible to account. Claims only succeed where there has been negligence which means that the exposure should not have occurred in the first place.
Compensation is tax-free and can be used as you wish however often clients benefit from being able to afford much needed equipment or paid help where household jobs that have become more difficult.
Compensation can also bring peace of mind that your partner or family will be financially secure in the future.
A civil claim is assessed individually and so this is impossible to answer at the start of a claim. Compensation is based on an amount for the condition (the bracket for mesothelioma ranges between £60,000 - £115,000) then compensation for expenses and losses caused by the condition, a nominal sum is awarded for help received from others, both family members who take over day to day tasks or provide you with help, and any paid help and there is compensation for income that you would have received in the years lost to a disease. Compensation for mesothelioma will be much higher than the one off payment from the government and this is why you should go ahead with both.
Usually the company who exposed you is no longer around, a claim is still possible however where we can trace the insurers from the time you were exposed.
So many of our clients refer to it being their first job that exposed them to asbestos. It goes without saying that your recollection of the exposure to asbestos is important and we need to spend as much time as it takes to discuss the details with you.
That said if you cannot remember how you have been exposed to asbestos, Fieldfisher would still be pleased to speak with you as sometimes you may have handled materials known by its trade name which we will recognise as containing asbestos, or we may ask a question that brings a memory back to your recollection. It is always worth taking advice.
A specialist solicitor will also have knowledge of what documents to look for that may corroborate your statement or how to approach witnesses in a sensitive manner. At Fieldfisher we have experience of finding trade documents that confirmed the presence of asbestos in flooring tiles when a company denied this was the case. It is this sort of expertise that your lawyer needs to have.
Experts are always used in claims and your solicitor will obtain reports from them for you. A medical expert will report on your condition. Often liability experts are needed to comment on their assessment of what type of asbestos may have been within materials you worked with or the level of exposure from the task undertaken.
Yes you can. If the insurers of that company can be found then a claim can proceed as normal. If you have mesothelioma and the company is no longer trading and insurers cannot be found then a claim can be put to the Mesothelioma Payment scheme.
Most exposure to asbestos is from the workplace whether it is yours or someone else's, after that, there are some instances of exposure from public places such as nearby to an asbestos factory. There are different legal considerations depending on whether the exposure was in a workplace or in a public place.
In the decades around the 1960's the UK's construction trade was the greatest importer of asbestos products and it was used by all trades meaning that all trades involved in construction were exposed because either they used it or were in the vicinity. It was used in all kinds of ways as a paste, board, cloth or rope, it was even sprayed. Many asbestos products had different trade names too. Construction workers may have used it themselves or worked near by.
Many other trades used asbestos on a daily basis too. Fieldfisher has created a database of all companies pursued over the 40 years it has been dealing with these claims. You can search this to give you an idea of all the different companies.
Where your exposure to asbestos was outside employment then a claim for the lump sum payment can be made under the "2008 Mesothelioma scheme" and it has the same tariff amount. Please see our guide to lump sum payments.
Yes it does. If you have an asbestos disease caused by exposure to asbestos in military service, whether in peace or wartime. You cannot make a compensation claim against the government if the exposure occurred before 1987 because of rules about the armed forces suing the government. You should instead claim a war disablement pension instead of industrial injuries disablement benefit. You can also claim a war pension for an asbestos disease if you were a civilian in HM Armed Forces. We can tell you more about these claims on request.
Yes you can. A claim can be made either by the person with the diagnosis or by someone who can represent their estate after they have passed.
If you think you have any condition caused by asbestos Fieldfisher would be pleased to speak with you to provide you with individual advice in this respect. The conditions are often referred to as mesothelioma, asbestos related lung cancer, asbestosis or diffuse pleural thickening, but sometimes other terms are used and where they impact on your respiratory function or day to day life and it still might be possible to claim.
The general rule is that your Court Case must start within 3 years from being told that you have an asbestos related condition. The rules are complicated however and sometimes the Court is willing to allow a claim, even after 3 years have passed. For this reason, you should speak to us as soon as you think you have a claim. Our specialist team have won claims at court years after the 3-year deadline has passed when there was good reason for this.
It is a monthly payment from the government to those with an asbestos- related disease from exposure as an employee. We can provide further details on request.
Yes you can still make a civil claim for compensation and usually that compensation will be much higher than the benefits. The only thing to be aware of is that those paying your compensation must repay the benefits to the government and so you will receive the balance between those benefits received and your compensation, however this should not stop you claiming both. Our advice will cover both.
The FSCS will step in and pay your compensation where the insurer of a defendant company is insolvent and the company is also insolvent. There are rules as to whether they will cover 90% or 100% of the awarded compensation and we can advise you on this should it become relevant to your claim.
In a claim for diffuse pleural thickening or asbestosis you can choose to settle your claim on the proviso that if you develop a further asbestos related condition, you can return for further compensation. If you do not chose this you will receive an award in full and final settlement of all asbestos related claims that you have or may develop later. We will advise you of this in more detail, should it be relevant to you.
This is a part payment of your compensation usually paid once we have secured an admission of liability from the defendant. It is useful to you as the money can be used right away to pay for services that may assist you greatly. When the final payment of compensation is agreed, we will advise you of the gross figure offered and the net amount you will receive so that you will completely understand the terms of compensation offered.