Asbestos victims need ‘help’

Victims, dying of occupational cancers, should not be penalised as a consequence of the government’s drive to trim £350 million off the legal aid bill by 2015, peers have said.

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill is designed to limit legal aid yet further. One of its most controversial proposals is to require a successful claimant to pay their legal fees out of the compensation awarded to them by a court.

Fortunately, sufficient numbers of the members of the House of Lords were persuaded that the bill is misconceived. An amendment to the Bill excludes people suffering from exposure to asbestos from having to pay their legal fees out of their compensation. Crossbencher Lord Alton said that people dying from exposure to asbestos “need help not hindrance”.

A broader amendment by Labour which exempts all industrial disease cases from the new payment arrangements was also passed. Lord Bach said that the failure of the government to treat industrial disease sufferers preferentially was “very unnecessary and rather cruel”.