Firm News

Miners Settlement

Release Date:

02 November 2006

A settlement has been agreed ensuring that a group of retired miners who were injured at work will not lose their homes as a result of a failed application to the High Court.

The miners, all of whom were awarded compensation by the Department of Trade and Industry for contracting industrial diseases, had sought to recoup fees paid to the Union of Democratic Mineworkers and its claims handling company, Vendside.

Anthony Julius, the Mishcon de Reya lawyer, who led the legal team representing 52 of the miners said: “It has been a privilege to have been able to help them.”

In June 2005, Greene Wood & McLean, a London law firm, took up the miners' cause launching a group action against UDM/Vendside. However, in May 2006 an application to the High Court was rejected, leaving the miners to pick up UDM/Vendside's legal costs. When the miners were unable to meet an interim bill of £300,000, UDM/Vendside threatened to sell their homes.

As a result of today's settlement, the miners' homes are safe and they have no further liability in relation to the failed group action. In addition, Greene Wood & McLean, their former solicitors, have agreed to pay each miner £1,000 for the distress and inconvenience they have suffered since May and their legal costs have been met.

Anthony Julius, said:

"Many of the clients were sick and elderly. Through no fault of their own, they found themselves facing the prospect of losing the homes they had worked all their lives to buy. This was a cause of great distress and anguish to them."