Injured Workers at Centre of Compensation Campaign

A Burnetts solicitor has given full support to a new parliamentary Bill which aims to secure compensation for thousands of injured workers unable to trace insurance details of former employers.
 
Nick Gutteridge, representing the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) in Carlisle, has backed Andrew Dismore MP in his call for the Government to set up an Employers’ Liability Insurance Bureau (ELIB), which would act as a compensation fund of last resort for workers who find themselves blocked from claiming for work-related injuries and diseases.  The move follows publication of Government figures which show the insurance industry is letting down thousands of injured people by failing to trace the information they need to make a claim.
 
Nick, Head of Personal Injury at Burnetts Solicitors, said the current method for tracing employers’ insurance records, run by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), is not working as effectively as it should.

“We know the ABI has tried consistently to improve the number of successful traces over the years, but the latest figures* speak for themselves,” he said.

“We have been calling for the introduction of an ELIB for more than ten years and fully support Andrew Dismore’s Bill. People who cannot trace their employers’ insurers often have no option but to give up their right to their compensation, and an ELIB would provide the back up these people need to make sure their claims do not have to be abandoned.”

Andrew said it was completely wrong that working people suffering from terrible – often terminal – diseases, can’t get the compensation they desperately need because the insurer can’t be traced.

“If compensation is there for people injured by uninsured drivers, it should be there for sick and injured workers,” he said.  “The aim of my Bill is to level that playing field.”

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Note to editors:

• *Figures are based on the review statement published by the Department for Work and Pensions in November 2008.
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2008/ELCI-CodeofPracticeStatement2006-07.pdf  
• APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) is a not-for-profit organisation, whose members are dedicated to campaigning for improvements in the law to help people who are injured or become ill through no fault of their own.
• Further information can also be found at the organisation’s website - www.apil.org.uk.

 
For more information, contact Lisa Wardle, t: 01159388715, or Michael Johns, t: 0115 9388702.

2nd Mar 09