John Mann: “Around £100 million of taxpayers money will be saved and will no longer be boosting the profits of fat-cat solicitors”

Bassetlaw miners help to save the taxpayer £100million

Bassetlaw MP John Mann has welcomed a High Court judgement ordering solicitors to pay money back which they have been paid for processing miners compensation claims.

The MP for Bassetlaw – in the heart of the North Nottinghamshire coalfield – has led a campaign in Parliament calling for lower payments to solicitors for fast-track compensation claims.

The judgement by Mrs Justice Swift orders solicitors to pay back money they have been paid in legal costs for processing claims for coal miners and their widows for crippling respiratory conditions including chronic bronchitis and COPD. Under the scheme solicitors were being paid over £1,500 per claim in costs, including for deceased cases, under the fast-track scheme for respiratory diseases.

The fast-track scheme was set up to get compensation paid more quickly to former miners with respiratory conditions as a result of their time working underground, and to their widows in the event of deceased claims. The fast-track scheme was also designed to ensure miners got their compensation before they died; however in some cases compensation has not been paid before the miner’s death.

Under the High Court judgement solicitors will now be paid around £1,100 per claim. Importantly, the judgement also rules that solicitors must repay money already paid to them for claims that have been settled, estimated to be around £74 million. Together with ongoing claims, it is estimated that the High Court judgement will see £100 million clawed back from solicitors.

This victory for the taxpayer only came about after miners in Bassetlaw came forward with evidence showing how little work solicitors were doing on fast-track claims. This evidence allowed John Mann MP to press for action.

Some solicitors have made multi-million pound profits from the Coal Health Compensation scheme for respiratory diseases and Vibration White Finger, including Doncaster based Beresfords and NUM solicitors Raleys, who are based in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Mr Jim Beresford, the Senior Partner of Beresfords, is said to be Britain’s highest earning solicitor in 2005; it is estimated that he earned the equivalent of £45,000 per day.

Bassetlaw MP John Mann has led the campaign for miners compensation justice, and has won significant sums of money back for his constituents who were wrongly charged by solicitors and claims handlers for claims, has welcomed this High Court judgement:

“The Government was right to challenge the amount of money being claimed by solicitors. I demanded that action was taken on this issue, there is less work involved in fast-track claims and it is a scandal that solicitors were making significant profits from this scheme. As a result of this campaign around £100 million of taxpayers money will be saved and will no longer be boosting the profits of fat-cat solicitors.”

“The British taxpayers owe a debt of thanks to the Bassetlaw miners who came forward with evidence demonstrating how little work solicitors were doing for their publicly-funded fees. This is a real victory for decent working people against fat-cat solicitors.”

“This High Court judgement underlines that solicitors are getting rich quick from the miners compensation scheme, whilst miners and their widows get compensation settlements less than the legal costs paid to the solicitors. This shows that solicitors have been relentlessly using the miners compensation scheme to boost their profits, their own salaries and their lavish lifestyles.”

“I would urge the Government to use the money being clawed-back from solicitors to ensure a decent and dignified minimum payment for deceased miners claims so we get compensation justice for widows who have had to care for their husbands in their final days, suffering from dreadful diseases caused by working underground.”