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Asbestos Cancer Victims Score High Court Victory
The High Court has come to the aid of thousands of victims of the asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma, who faced the prospect of up to a quarter of their badly needed compensation awards being eaten away by legal costs.
As a result of controversial reforms introduced by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO), personal injury victims were required to use part of their damages to meet the costs of pursuing their claims. Where claims were successful, those costs had formerly been paid by defendants' insurers.
An exception was made for mesothelioma cases; however, that was removed by the Secretary of State for Justice in December 2013. In overturning that decision, the Court accepted arguments put forward by the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK that there had been no adequate review, in accordance with the legislation, of the particular impact on mesothelioma sufferers.
The Forum's lawyers argued that the views of victims had not been sufficiently canvassed or given enough weight and that any review of the mesothelioma exemption should only take place after sufficient time had elapsed for the impact of the LASPO reforms in other personal injury cases to be carefully assessed.