I am a solicitor in the Asbestos Disease Litigation Team in Irwin Mitchell’s Birmingham Office.  My blog follows two mesothelioma suffers ‘William’ and ‘John’ through the compensation process to show how claims work and to highlight some issues which commonly arise.  

I talked in a previous blog about the loss of life expectancy caused by a mesothelioma illness.  Loss of life expectancy is relevant in financial losses because it determines the length of a claim for so called ‘lost years’.  The legal basis of the lost years claim is that if John and William had not been exposed to asbestos and had not developed mesothelioma, on the balance of probabilities, they would have lived to a normal life expectancy.  Had they done so, they would have benefited from a proportion of their income.

John and Williams’ mesothelioma illness are likely to shorten their lives substantially. Had they not had the illness and lived to a normal life expectancy they would have benefited personally from a proportion of their income, the part that would not have contributed to the household pot.  The period of the loss of life expectancy is used to calculate the period over which this element of their financial losses can be claimed.  This is often a highly valuable part of the case and is something that has to be calculated very carefully. 

As John was a relatively young man when he got ill, we included a claim for lost years based on his earnings as well as his pension. John had planned to work until 70 but his illness forced him to retire in his late 50s.

Had William and John not had wives, it would have been all the more important to bring these claims during their lifetime. Whilst any mesothelioma sufferer can claim for lost years after the sufferer passes away, the estate of the deceased mesothelioma sufferer can only claim if there is someone who was legally dependant upon their income such as a husband or wife, common law partner if they have cohabited for 2 years or more or financially dependant children.

When we act for living mesothelioma suffers without any dependants, we try everything we can to push their cases through during their lifetime to make sure that the value of their claim is maximised. For those who have mesothelioma and do not have a wife, a long-term partner or financially dependent children, it is crucial they see a solicitor who is an expert in asbestos related disease claims as soon as they can.