You only get the £5k if you started proceedings before Johnston/Rothwell

was decided. If you develop plaques now you have had it, unless you

actually fall ill.

R

> Perhaps worth noting, however, that pleural plaque victims in England

> & Wales are to receive ex gratia payments of £5,000 each from

> government, as sums representing the amount of damages they would have

> got had the Johnston/Rothwell cases been decided otherwise by the

> House of Lords.

>

> Jack Straw's full statement has the following passage:

>

> "On the basis of medical evidence received during the course of this

> review, including authoritative reports from the Chief Medical Officer

> and the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, we are unable to

> conclude that the Law Lords’ decision should be overturned at this

> time or that an open-ended no-fault compensation scheme should be set

> up. While the current medical evidence is clear that pleural plaques

> are a marker of exposure to asbestos, and that exposure to asbestos

> significantly increases the risk of asbestos-related disease, any

> increased risk of a person with pleural plaques developing an

> asbestos-related disease arises because of that person’s exposure to

> asbestos rather than because of the plaques themselves."

>

> This may have interesting repercussions in the context of the judicial

> review of the Scottish legislation on this subject currently on-going

> in the Court of Session (first instance decision upholding the Act as

> within the legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament available

> here - http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2010CSOH02.html).  I

> understand that the appeal in this case will be heard in July and has

> been put down for eight days in court.

>

> Hector

>

> --

> Hector L MacQueen

> Professor of Private Law

> Edinburgh Law School

> University of Edinburgh

> Edinburgh EH8 9YL

> UK

> Tel: (0)131-650-2060; Fax: (0)131-662-6317

>

>

> Quoting James Lee <j.s.f.lee@bham.ac.uk>:

>

>> Dear Colleagues,

>>

>> With thanks to Jonathan Morgan for drawing my attention to it,

>> colleagues may be interested to see that the Ministry of Justice

>> here in England has finally released its conclusion on the

>> consultation (which closed in late 2008) into whether to intervene

>> to reverse the 2007 decision of the House of Lords ([2007] UKHL 39)

>> that pleural plaques should not be actionable -

>> http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/announcement250210a.htm:

>>

>> "On the basis of medical evidence received during the course of this

>>  review, including authoritative reports from the Chief Medical

>> Officer and the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, we are unable

>> to conclude that the Law Lords' decision should be overturned at

>> this time or that an open-ended no-fault compensation scheme should

>> be set up. While the current medical evidence is clear that pleural

>> plaques are a marker of exposure to asbestos, and that exposure to

>> asbestos significantly increases the risk of asbestos-related

>> disease, any increased risk of a person with pleural plaques

>> developing an asbestos-related disease arises because of that

>> person's exposure to asbestos rather than because of the plaques

>> themselves. However, if new medical or other significant evidence

>> were to emerge, the government would obviously reassess the

>> situation."

>>

>> The Government has therefore decided against legislation, which

>> would have aligned English law with the response to the decision in

>> Scotland (subject to a Private Member's Bill which is unlikely to

>> pass without Government support before the election). Although one

>> must of course sympathise with the tragic predicament of claimants,

>> it would have been difficult to introduce such reforms in a manner

>> coherent with the rest of the law on damage in tort.

>>

>> Best wishes,

>>

>> James

>>

>> --

>> James Lee

>> Lecturer

>> Director of the LLB Programme

>> Birmingham Law School

>> University of Birmingham

>> Edgbaston

>> Birmingham

>> B15 2TT, United Kingdom

>>

>> Tel: +44 (0)121 414 3629

>> E-mail: j.s.f.lee@bham.ac.uk

>>

>>

>

>

>

> --

> The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in

> Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

>

>

>

--

Robert Stevens

Professor of Commercial Law

University College London