Kent Miners, History of Industrial Compensation Claims

Miners Respiratory Disease and Vibration White Finger Claims

Miners Compensation Schemes

Although both the Respiratory and Vibration White Finger Schemes have now closed, there are hundreds of thousands of miners who submitted their claims in time and who can transfer to another firm of solicitors should they so wish. You may be unhappy with the quality of service or advice you are receiving, or may believe that your claim has settled for less than it should have done. In these situations we may be able to help. We are regularly asked to take over cases for clients disgruntled with other firms, and to investigate professional negligence claims against firms believed to have under-settled cases.

If you want to transfer your case to us, or have concerns about the amount another firm has obtained for you, contact us today. 

A Basic Guide to the Claims Process

Vibration White Finger - once registered British Coal investigate the miner's work records to try and establish whether or not he worked in a job which would have involved excessive exposure to vibrating tools. Certain jobs are assumed, so long as the Claimant did them for long enough, to have automatically involved excessive exposure to vibration. These tend to be the main coal production jobs. Other jobs are assumed not to have automatically involved excessive use of vibrating tools (many surface jobs fall into this category as do haulage/supplies work, overmen and other so called supervisory roles, for example). With these jobs the onus is on the Claimant to prove that, whatever assumptions may be made under the Scheme, he in fact did have to use vibrating tools excessively. Your solicitor should try and help track down ex-colleagues who worked with you and who can vouch for the tools you used and the extent to which you used them. Assuming British Coal either accept or can be persuaded that you used vibrating tools excessively then the next stage will be your medical examination to establish whether or not you actually suffer from vibration white finger. After that, and assuming the medical confirms that you do have vibration white finger (and perhaps a similar condition of the hands/wrists known as carpal tunnel syndrome, which is also covered by the Scheme) then your solicitor should be able to extract an offer from British Coal.

Live Respiratory Claimants - following registration of the claim you should be sent for a basic lung function test known as "spirometry". This should take place within the first few months following registration. In certain cases an offer will be made based on that spirometry test and if accepted then the claim will be over. If the Claimant does not qualify for one of these offers, or if he chooses not to accept then with the help of his solicitor he will complete a detailed Claim Questionnaire and a set of Mandates for access to medical, work, DSS records and the like. It is very important that the solicitor helps the Claimant in completing these forms rather than just leaving the Claimant to do it all himself. Once those forms have been submitted to British Coal they will then use them to try and track down the miner's work and medical records. This process takes many months but eventually, when all records have been gathered in, the papers are sent to a respiratory specialist who will contact the Claimant to fix up an appointment for a full set of lung function tests and an examination. Based on this a medical report will be prepared by the respiratory specialist and, once that report is available, British Coal can make an offer.

Deceased Respiratory Claims - The process is similar to that for live claimants save that, for obvious reasons, no medical tests or examinations can be undertaken on the deceased miner. Therefore there is no basic spirometry test at the start of the claim and, later on, the full respiratory specialist's report is based only on such notes as can be found, without any examination of the miner.

Acted for Miners for 25 Years

We have acted for thousands of miners over the past 25 years, forging strong links with mining unions and communities in the process. It is a testament to the quality of our work that so many of our mining clients have recommended us to their ex-colleagues. Furley Page represented the very first successful chronic bronchitis/emphysema claimant against British Coal, Jackie Tanner of Aylesham, Kent. That claim was successful in the Court of Appeal in 1991. This was followed by 8 test cases, Judgment on which was given on 28.1.98 and led to the Compensation Scheme coming into operation in Summer 1999.

No Charge

We do not charge any costs on claims under the Respiratory or Vibration White Finger Compensation Schemes. If your current representative does charge then you should consider asking them why. If you are still dissatisfied and wish to transfer the claim to us, let us know.

Discussing Your Claim

If you would like to discuss your claim under either Scheme then contact Neille Ryan or click on the Contact Our Team heading towards the top left of any of the personal injury pages on this website, for contact details.

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