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Accident and Injury Claims Centre welcomes asbestos-related cancer law
A LEADING Scottish
lawyer has welcomed the announcement of forthcoming Scottish Executive legislation
designed to help victims of an asbestos-related cancer, as well as their
families and dependents.
Norman Geddes, senior partner at the Ayrshire-based Accident & Injury
Claims Centre, a division of Frazer Coogans Solicitors, Ayr, says that the
Rights of Relatives to Damages (Mesothelioma) Bill will allow mesothelioma
sufferers to claim full compensation, and their families to claim for their
own grief and suffering.
Norman explained: "Under the current law, sufferers of mesothelioma
- an asbestos-related cancer which can develop up to 40 years after exposure
to asbestos - face the dilemma of either settling their damages claim while
alive, or not settling their claim before death so their relatives can claim
greater awards. Most sufferers do not claim themselves, so as not to disadvantage
their families.
"The Bill that has now been put before the Scottish Parliament following
a consultation which ran in July and August, will remedy this situation by
allowing the immediate family to claim damages for non-financial loss even
if the deceased settled their own claim while alive. It will apply to cases
where the sufferer's own case is concluded after the Bill comes into force
as an Act - expected to be by next March."
The Rights of Relatives to Damages (Mesothelioma) Bill only applies to that
one disease, the most unpleasant of the fatal conditions contracted from
even a tiny particle of asbestos lodging in the lung, and taking up to 30
years to kill its victim. There are at present about 1900 people dying from
it in Britain every year, but numbers are expected to soar over the next
decade.
The law is changing a loophole in past laws, which meant compensation could
be paid to a living sufferer, but at a lower rate than would be paid to the
surviving family after death. That has left victims facing the dilemma of
choosing between maximising their families' benefit, but at personal cost
in the final months of their lives.
Lawyers campaigning for victims hoped the law change could go wider than
mesothelioma, to avoid the same impact on those suffering from other work-related
fatal illnesses. But it was limited to the one condition to let it go through
before Parliament is dissolved for next year's election.
Norman Geddes concluded: "Victims will now be able to pursue those responsible
for compensation without fear that the rights of their families to compensation
for their loss being extinguished."
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