Articles in ‘Injury’ Category

Mr S – who lived in Newcastle – had been diagnosed with asbestos related problems in 2007. At the time he had instructed local Solicitors to investigate and they told him – without obtaining his medical notes and records – that he had asymptomatic pleural plaques and a claim would not be possible.

Mrs H developed mesothelioma. She could not recall definite exposure to asbestos during the course of her own employment and the first solicitor she contacted were unable to continue with the claim. She approached RWK Goodman and they obtained a full statement from her detailing her potential exposure to asbestos as a result of her own work in factories in the Nottingham area, and as a result of her ex-husband’s work and his brother’s work.

Mr W was in his 80s when he developed mesothelioma. He and his wife had emigrated to Skiathos many years before where they owned a substantial property with a large garden and a grove of olive trees.

We were approached by Sandra in January of 2018 following the death of her father 5 years earlier. Sandra’s father had worked for Morfitts of Leeds in the 1950s and was exposed to substantial asbestos.

Reg and Billy W had shared a house for many years, living also with their aged father who died in 2016. In the summer of 2017 Billy became unwell. He was too frail for a biopsy, but the hospital thought that he had mesothelioma, which is an aggressive asbestos related cancer. Billy’s brother Reg contacted Helen Childs of RWK Goodman who was able to visit Billy within days. Unfortunately his condition was deteriorating so fast that Billy was unable to give details of his exposure to asbestos by then. He died the very next day, aged just 68.

Mr W, who was born in 1940 worked as an architect building schools in Hertfordshire and also worked for Distillers Company Limited in their chemicals and plastics division – carrying out rebuilding and extension design work to several of its factories. He described exposure to asbestos in both these jobs as he oversaw the construction of the factories and Council buildings including schools that are still in existence today. 

Mr H, a retired paper mill worker, developed mesothelioma in 2014. A support group referred him to a firm of solicitors, but unfortunately Mr H was very unwell by then and he died shortly after meeting with them. The solicitors were unable to continue with his claim largely because Mr H’s Will appointed the partners in a firm of solicitors as his executors and they were unable to agree terms with the former first of solicitors to allow them to pursue the claim even under a no win no fee agreement. They also had no direct evidence of exposure to asbestos during the period for which they had been able to track down insurers for the company, because Mr H’s statement indicated that he had retired much earlier than he actually had.

Mr N, who was born in Nigeria in 1938, came over to England in the 1960s and started studying to become a doctor. He only had partial funding so had to work throughout all of his holidays in order to support himself. He worked at Johnson Matthey and also Atlas Stone.

June W was secretary in Cape Asbestos Factory in Hebden Bridge in the 1950s. She regularly used to have to go out onto the factory floor to deliver and collect messages. Mrs W married her husband Colin in the 1960’s and in 1971 they emigrated to Australia. Mrs W became unwell and was diagnosed with mesothelioma from which she died just before Christmas 2017.

Mr L was only 68 when he developed mesothelioma in the summer of 2018. He described exposure to asbestos for three or four lagging companies in the 1960s.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Northern Ireland will be increasing the statutory compensation available to bereaved families. Families bringing claims in relation to a death in Northern Ireland will now be entitled to over £2,000 more in damages than families in England and Wales.

Head injuries have too often been considered a necessary risk in sports such as football and rugby. But with the alarming scenes of Jan Vertonghen’s head injury during Tottenham’s Champions league semi-final, and the damning report from the Rugby Football Union and it’s focus on head injury, is it time to ask what more can be done to improve prevention, reporting, and treatment?