Asbestos Compensation Ruling a £5billion Hit to Insurers

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Asbestos Compensation Ruling a £5billion Hit to Insurance Firms [26th Mar 2012]

A campaign which was designed to make insurance companies honour the compensation claims of asbestos victims has won a ruling for £600 million. It is expected that the Supreme Court will rule this week that the insurers who covered the victims at the time they were working around asbestos must pay compensation to anyone affected by it, or to their families if they have already died. Insurance companies have been trying to minimise the amount they will be expected to pay for years since the first case was brought. While the initial claim involves just 6,000 families, it is expected that future claims could also come under this ruling and could cost the industry as much as £5 billion. Insurers had been claiming that they should only be expected to pay victims once their cancers had started to develop, rather than if they were exposed. It is thought that those families at the centre of the current case will be paid around £200,000 in compensation each and this should be made quickly.

The personal injury law firm Donns LLP has been placed in administration. The company started in 1969 in Manchester and is thought to be one of the leading specialists in the country for personal injury claims - in particular in relation to mis-selling claims. Those cases which were in progress have been passed to the rival law firm Irwin Mitchell which is also based in Manchester. Former clients will be approached by this firm to ask their permission to continue the cases. An undisclosed sum has been paid for this right. Irwin Mitchell have stated that they understand it will be a worrying time for these clients and that they will offer them the choice of continuing with Irwin Mitchell or appointing their own solicitor to carry on their case.

The government has lost their second appeal against a ruling on the feed-in-tariff for solar panel installations. The case against them was based around their introduction of a lower tariff before a consultation on the issue was completed. It was found by the courts that this was in fact, illegal. Now solar companies are questioning if they are entitled to compensation because of the confusion and uncertainty which this appeal caused to their businesses. In many cases customers stopped going ahead with their installations because they were not sure they would get the full tariff. It is thought that the government could now face a string of lawsuits surrounding this issue. David Hunt from Eco Environments has pointed out that the government should have backed down on the issue weeks ago rather than pursuing two appeals. He says that the government has done untold damage to the solar industry by carrying on the case. Law firm Osborne Clarke which specialises in renewable energy cases has stated that they have received a surge in enquires regarding compensation over this matter.

Anyone who wants to claim back care home fees which were paid in error has been given a deadline of 30 September 2012 to make their claim. The department of health has said that the claims will affect payments made between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2011. Any claims need to be registered with the NHS to get the compensation. This fact has not been widely publicised, a factor which has been criticised by compensation firms. It is thought that around 100,000 people in the UK have been affected because they sold their homes even though they were entitled to continuing healthcare support. This may mean that they are due a reimbursement. Compensation firms fear that many thousands of families might miss out because those who are entitled have not been told.

Other popular articles related to this one include: Asbestos Victims Compensation, Child Abuse Compensation, Employee Abuse Compensation, Unfair Dismissal Claims, Teacher Injury Compensation, Terrorist Attack Compensation, Wrongful Arrest Compensation, and . Please let us know if you find any errors.

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