Mr A contacted us in October 2010. He had been experiencing quite severe chest pain which had become steadily worse over a period of about six months. He had been to see his specialist who had told him that he had mesothelioma. The specialist explained to him that this was probably the result of exposure to asbestos which could have occurred many years earlier. Initially, Mr A did not recall having come into contact with asbestos to any great extent.
A couple of days later, he recalls that in one of his jobs as a Delivery Driver he fairly regularly had to collect and deliver asbestos sheets in the back of his vehicle. He would be involved in the loading and unloading of these.
He saw our advertisement in the newspaper and contacted us for a no-obligation discussion. He was unsure about the specific dates when he had carried out this work and could not remember exactly where he had taken the deliveries.
We told him that we would be happy to look at the possibility of claiming compensation for him. We obtained his employment history from the Inland Revenue which confirmed his employment with the company in question and the dates when this occurred. We got in touch with his specialist and obtained some more information about his condition. His specialist agreed to prepare a report for us for the purposes of the court proceedings.
We started the claim process against the former employers in question who referred the matter to their insurers. They initially failed to deal with the matter properly and as a result, we obtained a court order forcing them to do so. As a direct consequence of this, they admitted that Mr A had been exposed to asbestos during his employment with them.
We met with Mr A to obtain full details of his difficulties and the financial losses which he had suffered and would continue to suffer as a result of his condition. We disclosed the medical specialist's report to the Defendants together with details of Mr A's financial losses. These included claims to reflect the fact that he was no longer able to carry out jobs such as DIY, gardening, decorating, window cleaning and car servicing as a result of his deteriorating condition.
After an initial lower offer, we subsequently received an offer from the Defendant's insurers to settle Mr A's claim in the sum of £125,000 in March 2011 and we forwarded a cheque to him for this amount two weeks later when we received the cheque from the Defendant's insurers.
