Miners challenge over claims
WORKERS, MAY 2006 ISSUE
The Law Society is facing a challenge from the Legal Services Ombudsman over the handling of miners' compensation claims. The Law Society has been found to have "failed to act in an impartial manner" in dealing with complaints by miners against the solicitors representing them over "inadequate professional service". These cases which are estimated to run into millions of pounds of compensation against the legal firms involved are a direct legacy of the aftermath of the 1984-85 Miners Strike.
The scab Union of Democratic Mineworkers entered into arrangements with various legal firms to represent miners' industrial diseases claims. It is those arrangements and those firms which are under the spotlight and investigation. The government radically changed legislation post 1997 to address miners' industrial diseases. Some 580,000 claimants for respiratory problems and 170,000 claimants for white finger vibration cases, estimated at over £7 billion in compensation, have been registered.
The time window for claiming has now closed. The National Union of Mineworkers and its legal advisers are vigorously pursuing this final chapter in righting the wrongs inflicted on the miners and their communities during the past 20 years.