The Miner's Cases
A Special Report by the Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales

Miners' compensation cases not properly investigated by the Law Society says Legal Services Ombudsman

The Law Society has failed to properly investigate miners’ complaints against their solicitors, says the Legal Services Ombudsman, Zahida Manzoor CBE in a special report issued today.

The Ombudsman has investigated how the Law Society has handled complaints in a number of cases brought by former miners about their solicitors. The solicitors had made claims for Vibration White Finger and/or Obstructive Pulmonary Disease on behalf of the miners from a government funded compensation scheme.

Ms Manzoor is concerned that some solicitors may have breached their code of conduct in the way they managed these cases and whether the solicitors acted in the best interest of their clients. Ms Manzoor found that the Law Society did not investigate whether miners were being advised adequately by their solicitors regarding costs and the Government agreement.

She has also questioned the relationship between some solicitors and the claims-handling agents to whom money was paid by deductions from compensation payments to miners.

Ms Manzoor said:
“In the complaints I have investigated I have questioned why miners were asked by their solicitors to make payments to claims handling-agents when the government would have covered all such costs.

I am equally concerned that I found in some cases that the Law Society’s investigation was inadequate and I am not satisfied that the Law Society could conclude that the service provided by the solicitors was satisfactory or that there was no misconduct on the part of the solicitor. I have returned these cases to the Law Society and recommended that the Law Society re-investigates them quickly”.

Earlier this year, the Law Society advised solicitors to repay to miners any money that had been wrongly deducted from compensation payments. Ms Manzoor has also called for compensation to be paid for any inadequate professional service and for any distress and inconvenience caused.

Downloads

Miners' Cases report cover
Download the full report as a PDF file here
[Opens in a new window] [File size 248kb]

Adobe Acrobat Reader
To view PDF files you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC. This is free software from Adobe.com