Surely an opinion from any old GP will be laughed out of court? Try the 
British Thoracic Society.

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From: 	[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]
Sent: 	24 January 1998 11:01
To: 	[log in to unmask]
Cc: 	[log in to unmask]
Subject: 	COAL DUST IILLNESS

GPs in mining areas, and in coastal retirement areas, will have many ex-miner
patients with emphysema, chronic bronchitis. The following is a warning for
those patients, but also a call for some help.

You will have read/heard/TV'd yesterday's High Court victory in a test case
by eight former coal miners for various respiratory conditions caused by
exposure to coal dust. Claims were allowed by the Judge in relation to
exposures commencing as early as 1954. (To pre-empt the "McDonald's Hot
Coffee" type rants, the point here was not that the miners didn't expect to
be exposed to dust but that British Coal failed to ensure levels were kept
reasonable,preferring productivity over safety).

In a unique response, the Government have immediately announced they will not
appeal and want to settle all further claims likely to apply to over
100,000 ex-miners (and indeed families of deceased ex-miners).

I sit on the national Steering Committee that co-ordinated and ran this group
action and the test case. We are concerned that a new breed of compensation
claims handlers (who are not lawyers but offer a No Win-No Fee scheme that
is usually unfavourable to clients-and were 'exposed' last year in a Radio
4 Face The Facts programme ) which has developed over the past few years
and targetted occupational illness claims, will now seek to obtain
instructions for many of the other ex-miners. This may risk damage to the
negotiations with Government. At the present time Legal Aid is available
,but only for those who apply before April, when LA is to be withdrawn for
compensation claims. Most solicitors will take on the cases, so long as
damage can be established as caused/exacerbated by post 1954 dust, so there
is no need for any ex-miner to go to an unqualified service.

The important task from hereon, now that liability has been accepted, is to
establish the cause of illness in each individual case. That will depend
very much on the information in the medical records, which will go back
decades, and other contributory factors, eg smoking. 

There is going to be a major task in reviewing and legal case screening of
all new enquiries and their medical records. It will also be necessary to
gather a team to produce expert reports. In the last biggest group action
(whose name is never spoken of in polite company) we don't want to find the
doctors helping out to be swamped by the number of cases. So having an
adequate number of medics to help so that the examination of the medical
aspects of each case is done thorougly is important.

I just wonder, therefore, if any members to this list, qualified to do so, 
might be interested in assisting with this task. If so, please e-mail me
privately. Similarly if anyone wants further info to explain the issues to
their patients.





Graham Ross
Solicitor
Ross & Co
Liverpool, UK
+44 (0)151 284 8585
+44 (0)151 236 6035-fax
ALeRT:- http://www.alertuk.com

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