Disease

For many years, we’ve sat on the disease panel for a major insurer. We consistently remain at the top of their law firm league table - measuring performance against KPIs.

In Scotland, we are one of the largest defender disease teams in the country – handling more than 2,000 claims in the last five years.

We are sole supplier for disease clams across England, Wales, Scotland & Ireland for a major UK insurer dealing with a diverse range of claims from intimation to conclusion of litigation.

Our highly responsive and proactive service provides crucial support just when you need it. We assign the right person to the right claim at the start for successful case management. This reduces settlement times and leads quickly to the desired outcome.

The team’s technical experience and skill combined with effective supervision on every file means we make quick decisions on cases and get the best results for you.

Featured experience

• Public Liability Mesothelioma claim: We acted for a local authority defending a mesothelioma claim from a former pupil of a school who had alleged exposure to asbestos while at a secondary school between 2000 and 2006. The claimant was only 33 years old. Irwin Mitchell obtained evidence historic asbestos surveys from a FOI request before we were instructed. These revealed that some asbestos ceiling tiles in a changing room used by the claimant were in poor condition in 1999 and not replaced until September 2001. We were able to trace and obtain witness evidence from the former headmaster, school site manager, and hazard manager from the local authority dealing with asbestos management. Occupational hygiene evidence was obtained which suggested (contrary to the claimant’s evidence) that the exposure levels were below usual atmospheric levels. The claim was pleaded at 1.6M and a commercial settlement was reached at £500K.
• Employers' Liability Mesothelioma claim – We were one of 4 defendants in a mesothelioma claim brought by a female claimant. She alleged that she had been exposed while washing her husband’s clothes when he was employed by Harland and Wolff (a co-def). The exposure with our client related to a period of time at the shop in which the claimant worked. She alleged that the owner contracted her husband to rewire the shop. She worked overtime and helped her husband remove and disturb ceiling tiles over a period of 2 – 3 weeks. We obtained a show cause report from an engineer that concluded that this exposure was likely to be de minimis. Before the CMC, we offered the claimant a drop hands settlement which was accepted saving the insurer circa £350K silica induced COPD claim.
• We were instructed by a corporate client with a large deductible on this claim. We obtained favourable engineering and medical evidence. The conclusion of both parties experts was that there was not sufficient exposure to silica dust to cause silicosis and the claim failed resulting in a 6-figure saving for the client. We were also able to use the case to negotiate a much lower settlement on a claim where there had been heavier exposure brought by the same claimant firm.