Our Occupational Disease Unit comprises a team of experts with extensive experience in handling all types of occupational disease and illness claims. We have over 16 partners and over 30 legal staff specialising in disease work throughout the UK. This enables us to provide you with excellent national coverage and quality representation.
We act on behalf of insurers, brokers, corporate and other uninsured defendants, local authorities, healthcare trusts and government departments. We are also frequently instructed by foreign parent companies on behalf of their UK subsidiaries with disease legacies, including UK subsidiaries of US Corporations in asbestos litigation.
We deal with claims arising from traditional diseases as well as ground breaking and unusual illnesses such as Q-fever. Common work-related medical conditions we deal with include:
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Asbestos related conditions
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Asthma
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Dermatitis
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Hand arm vibration syndrome (HAVS)
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Laryngeal, bladder retroperitoneal fibrosis and other work related cancers
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‘Beat Knee’ (bursitis)
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Industrial deafness
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Stress
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Work-related upper limb disorders
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Legionnaires disease
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Silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary/airway disease (COPD/COAD) and other respiratory diseases
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Poisoning such as carbon monoxide poisoning
As well as defending existing claims, we can assist you to manage the risk of future claims. We achieve this by getting to know your business and the demands that you face – through client review meetings and discussing litigation trends. As a result, we are often at the forefront of innovative and precedent setting litigation.
Our success in disease cases is measured not just by ‘winning’ at trial, but by mitigating the amount of damages and costs paid by our clients before matters reach trial.
Publications and articles
Disease claims have generated a significant amount of case law. Our Occupational Disease Unit have developed a helpful reference guide which details the symptoms, causes, legal application and compensation limits for common work-related diseases and conditions.
Download our Occupational Disease Manual (PDF, 196K).
For more information about occupational disease read our quarterly Disease Briefs.
Work highlights
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Involvement by one of our partners in advising an employer in a case concerning the employer’s date of knowledge where an employee was exposed to noise levels above 85dBA before 1 January 1990 - Baker v Quantum Clothing Group and others [2011].
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Acting for a local authority in test litigation which will determine whether employers’ liability for mesothelioma claims is triggered at the date of exposure or injury - Municipal Mutual Insurance v Zurich Insurance & Ors (The EL Policy Triggers Test Litigation) [2010].
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Providing policy advice to UK Coal about administering the largest personal injury scheme in the world - over 600,000 claimants were miners who developed various respiratory diseases as a consequence of working underground - Griffiths & others v DTI (The British Coal Respiratory Disease Litigation) [2007].
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Involvement by one of our partners in a Court of Appeal decision which held that negligent exposure to asbestos in a foreign country is only actionable in England if it is a tort according to English law and in the foreign jurisdiction where such exposure occurred - Durham v T & N plc [1996].
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Defending six test cases brought for HAVS and carpal tunnel syndrome. We established a scheme to process the pending 150 other claims as part of the settlement negotiations, which resolved issues such as date of knowledge and a tariff for damages - Angus & others v Cleveland Potash Limited.