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Mesothelioma is the most terrible of the diseases caused by asbestos and the Government has been trumpeting new payouts of up to £123,000 for victims. The money will be paid to people who are unable to make insurance claims because the firm that exposed them to asbestos has gone out of business. Many will have worked in dockyards that have long since shut down and the records of the employer's liability insurance have vanished. The money to fund these new Mesothelioma Act payouts is coming from the insurance industry. But before you think that’s very generous of them, it’s worth remembering that for 30 odd years the industry has been avoiding paying these sufferers. And compensation via the Mesothelioma Act will not cover cases where the employers’ insurers can be traced – this is the vast majority of cases. These victims used to keep the whole amount if they won a payout and the insurers would pay their legal fees, the so-called "success fee". Under new rules contained in the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Act the victims will have to pay the fee out of their compensation, saving the insurance industry a fortune. So did the Government agree to a deal which would mean that insurers no longer have to pay victims’ fees if, in return, the industry funded the cost of Mesothelioma Act compensation? In a House of Commons hearing of the Justice Committee, Labour MP John McDonnell put this to James Dalton of the Association of British Insurers. When Mr Dalton failed to give a straight answer, Mr McDonnell responded: “I think we’ll take that as a ‘yes’.” Ian McFall is head of Asbestos Litigation at Thompsons Solicitors and is in no doubt. “A deal was done behind closed doors between the Government and the Association of British Insurers designed to achieve substantial savings for insurers by reducing the cost of claims,” he says. “Mesothelioma sufferers have paid enough already, they will pay with their lives for having gone to work, why should they also have to pay legal costs for being compensated? “The very fact that you now have to discuss legal costs will put some of them off from making a claim. "Mesothelioma claimants in my experience are probably the most risk adverse and litigation adverse people you are likely to meet. “It's partly their generation, partly their class, they do not want a hand out and do not want to have to got to lawyers and claims companies, they would rather be just getting on with their lives, their retirement and their grandchildren. "But when you talk to them about costs the very conversation is sometimes enough for them to say, 'I'd really rather not'. “The very fact that the claimant in principle can be liable for their own legal fees is a disincentive for some to pursue a claim.” Finally, back to the Mesothelioma Act and the compensation that will be paid in cases where insurers cannot be traced. Here's more from Ian McFall: "This would be good were it not for the fact that insurers sold employers' liability policies for decades during which workers were being exposed to asbestos. Over that long period many employers went out of business and the reason why the insurance policies could not be traced is because the insurance industry has lost or destroyed them.

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