Skip to main content

Contact us to arrange your
FREE initial consultation

Call me back Email us
 

Our specialist asbestos claims lawyers were instructed by the family of Mr D, following his death as a consequence of mesothelioma, an asbestos related disease, in June 2012.

Mr D’s employment history

Following Mr D’s diagnosis of mesothelioma he initially instructed another firm of solicitors to pursue a claim on his behalf.

Mr D was employed as a machine operator for many different companies over the years and possibly could have been exposed to asbestos with any of them. During his lifetime he provided a witness statement to his previous solicitors, though he could not recall if any previous employer had exposed him to asbestos.

Mr D’s previous solicitors concluded that they could not pursue a claim on Mr D’s behalf, due to a lack of evidence and decided to close their file of papers. Sadly Mr D passed away shortly afterwards.

Boyes Turner’s investigation of the claim

Following Mr D’s passing his widow decided to contact Boyes Turner, after reading about our specialism in pursuing claims for asbestos related diseases such as mesothelioma.

We are a firm committed to obtaining justice for mesothelioma victims and decided to investigate Mr D’s claim further. This is despite the fact that Mr D himself was unable to recall any specific asbestos exposure and that a previous firm of solicitors had apparently exhausted all means of investigation.

Our specialist team of asbestos claims lawyers set about the painstaking task of carrying out a full investigation in to every employer Mr D had ever worked for, considering workplace practices of each employer and thereafter attempting to locate previous colleagues of Mr D who may have been able to provide evidence of asbestos exposure.

As a result of our perseverance, it was discovered that one of Mr D’s previous employers, Vinters-Armstrongs Limited, had a history of using asbestos products and had been pursued previously by other asbestos victims for compensation. We then concentrated our efforts on this previous employer and managed to obtain a number of witness statements to confirm that Mr D was in fact exposed to asbestos whilst working for this company.

It transpired that Mr D’s asbestos exposure came from damaged asbestos lagged pipework in his working environment, repairs to asbestos corrugated roofs in his workplace and, in particular, from when he would douse fires at his workstation using buckets of raw asbestos powder which exposed him to copious amounts of harmful asbestos dust.

Mr D’s legal claim

Our asbestos claims lawyers sent a full letter of claim to Vinters-Armstrongs Limited (“the defendant”) setting out various allegations of negligence and requesting that the defendant admit liability for Mr D’s asbestos related disease.

After the defendants' investigation of the claim, liability was denied so we issued proceedings in the Royal Courts of Justice, London in attempt to gain justice for Mr D.

Mr D’s trial

The defendant remained unwilling to admit liability for Mr D’s mesothelioma and, as a result, the case was listed for trial in the Royal Courts of Justice London. On the morning of the trial, just a few minutes before Mr D’s widow was due to enter Court and provide evidence, the defendant entered into a settlement with Mrs D.

Three and a half years after Mr D’s death, justice was finally obtained for him and his family.

Mrs D’s comments

Mrs D was delighted with the fact that we had managed to locate her husband’s place of asbestos exposure, obtain justice for her husband and that her family would receive some compensation for the loss they had suffered.

Mrs D in particular was mindful of the fact that we had taken this case on and succeeded when previous solicitors had told her the claim lacked any prospects of success, due to a lack of evidence.

Boyes Turner’s specialist asbestos disease lawyers

Boyes Turner are one of the largest legal services providers in the Thames Valley and operate one of the largest specialist asbestos claims teams in the country.

We pride ourselves on being able to take on the cases that other lawyers deem to have a lack of prospects and in being able to succeed where others have failed. The success in cases like Mr D’s reflects our ethos of obtaining justice for mesothelioma victims and ensuring asbestos victims and their families are properly compensated.