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Miners Compensation Claims Website

Website launched to help miners’ claims

As miners in the north-east continue to struggle to get compensation, a new website has been launched to gather together claims from former coal miners who believe their claims were undersettled by their solicitors.

Repeated stories have been emerging in the past few months indicating that some solicitors have been short-changing miners who have pursued claims for a range of conditions including Vibration White Finger, chest diseases and osteoarthritis or ‘miner’s knee’, as it has become known in this context. The website, run by a firm of solicitors, is intended to gather together as many of these cases as possible to pursue further action against solicitors they believe have undersettled claims or who have not properly advised their clients.

The action comes after a detailed analysis of a report into the handling of claims focused on flaws in the administrative process used to decide the claims. As a result, the site says that a number of potential areas have been identified where solicitors had not correctly advised clients on how to proceed. The site is acting as a forerunner to a collective case being brought against a claims advisor in the first ever co-ordinated legal action for alleged undersettling of coal health compensation claims.

Miners and their families have been fighting long and hard to get the compensation they deserve for a lifetime of exposure to demanding and dangerous conditions underground. The government has accepted that certain conditions can be directly linked to poor working conditions and have agreed to compensate accordingly. To find that the very people who should be fighting alongside the miners to get them this compensation may have short-changed their clients (for whatever reason) casts yet another shadow over the reputation of the legal profession and the claims industry in particular. Despite the fact that it is really is a case of one or two rotten apples spoiling the whole barrel, that is not how the public will see it once it is given the usual media spin and damning headlines.

The specialist claims industry has to be seen to be above reproach on its dealings with compensation paid out to victims. Continuous press relating to exorbitant fees, allegations of ‘short-changing’ victims and anything that tarnishes the good name of the industry can only damage the claims industry’s reputation still further. The fact that a website dedicated to highlighting this fact needs to be created is in itself evidence that the system is failing many victims at a fundamental level.

What is really needed now is clarity from the government. By laying the facts out clearly, in a manner that can be understood not only by solicitors but by ordinary people as well, this situation can be turned around and the public’s faith in the process could be restored. The industry is doing a good job of policing its own membership, but there are still too many cases of undersettled claims and exorbitant fees to allow the industry to rest on its laurels. By ensuring that everyone who has a right to compensation gets the representation, the support and the compensation they deserve and making the process as transparent as possible, the industry can salvage its reputation as a defender of those who cannot defend themselves. If the government were to intervene and make sure that negligence claims against solicitors were given the attention they deserve, then perhaps the battle for compensation that has sapped the strength of so many victims over the years could be made that much easier.

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