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NEWS RELEASE: Immediate
Accident and Injury Claims Centre welcomes asbestos-related
cancer law
A LEADING Scottish lawyer has welcomed the announcement of
forthcoming Scottish Executive legislation designed to help victims
of an asbestos-related cancer, as well as their families and dependents.
Norman Geddes, senior partner at the Ayrshire-based Accident & Injury
Claims Centre, a division of Frazer Coogans Solicitors, Ayr, says
that the Rights of Relatives to Damages (Mesothelioma) Bill will
allow mesothelioma sufferers to claim full compensation, and their
families to claim for their own grief and suffering.
Norman explained: "Under
the current law, sufferers of mesothelioma - an asbestos-related
cancer which can develop up to 40 years after exposure to asbestos
- face the dilemma of either settling their damages claim while
alive, or not settling their claim before death so their relatives
can claim greater awards. Most sufferers do not claim themselves,
so as not to disadvantage their families.
"The Bill that
has now been put before the Scottish Parliament following a consultation
which ran in July and August, will remedy this situation by allowing
the immediate family to claim damages for non-financial loss even
if the deceased settled their own claim while alive. It will apply
to cases where the sufferer's own case is concluded after the
Bill comes into force as an Act - expected to be by next March."
The
Rights of Relatives to Damages (Mesothelioma) Bill only applies
to that one disease, the most unpleasant of the fatal conditions
contracted from even a tiny particle of asbestos lodging in the
lung, and taking up to 30 years to kill its victim. There are
at present about 1900 people dying from it in Britain every year,
but numbers are expected to soar over the next decade.
The law
is changing a loophole in past laws, which meant compensation
could be paid to a living sufferer, but at a lower rate than would
be paid to the surviving family after death. That has left victims
facing the dilemma of choosing between maximising their families'
benefit, but at personal cost in the final months of their lives.
Lawyers
campaigning for victims hoped the law change could go wider than
mesothelioma, to avoid the same impact on those suffering from
other work-related fatal illnesses. But it was limited to the
one condition to let it go through before Parliament is dissolved
for next year's election.
Norman Geddes concluded: "Victims
will now be able to pursue those responsible for compensation
without fear that the rights of their families to compensation
for their loss being extinguished."
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