Hope Not Hate Campaign Bus 2010 picture

About Thompsons

UK Campaigns

We strive to use our experience to support and help workers worldwide. Our strong affiliation with UK unions has been crucial to our achievements in the UK and internationally. Please select one of the links below to read more about our work on UK Campaigns.

 

 

Fighting the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

Thompsons is campaigning with victim support groups, trade unions and others to defend access to justice which will be denied to vulnerable injured people if the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishments of Offenders Bill (LASPO) becomes law.

The Bill cuts legal aid, changes sentencing policy and implements reforms to civil justice proposed by Lord Justice Jackson. It will make it difficult for people who have been injured or suffered an industrial disease, particular those with the most serious and difficult cases, to find lawyers prepared to take on their case.

This is because it will end the guilty party having to pay the premium for After the Event (ATE) insurance taken out to cover the costs of things such as medical reports. It will also stop the guilty party having to pay success fees in Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs).

The insurance industry will save millions if the Bill becomes law. Insurers say the reforms will reduce compensation claims and enable them to cut motor premiums. But road traffic claims are 80% of all injury claims and are the only kind to be rising. Employer liability claims – workplace injuries and industrial diseases – are a minority of cases and their number is falling year on year. However they are the most serious and difficult cases so require proper funding, including recoverable ATE, for victims to be able to pursue them.

The reforms will not reduce the number of road traffic accident claims because the majority are straightforward and require little investigation or financial outlay to prove. They will also reduce income to the government through reduced DSS benefits recoupment, increased costs to the NHS to treat injured and ill people unable to recover compensation to pay for care needs and a greater number of the long term injured reliant on living on benefits. The Bill therefore hits the wrong targets.

LASPO is now before the House of Lords and Thompsons is calling for amendments including the exclusion of EL cases from the reforms.

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Thompsons on board the Hope Not Hate bus

April 2010 - Thompsons backs anti-BNP Hope Not Hate bus

Thompsons Solicitors sponsored, with the Daily Mirror, the Hope not Hate bus which toured key constituencies during the general election, encouraging people to vote to reject the policies of the BNP.

The route started in Manchester and continued to Leeds, Stoke and Barking and Dagenham and arrived in Central London on 4 May.

Over the years, many people in a number of Thompsons' offices have been involved, with our trade union colleagues, in campaigns to defeat the threat from the far right.

Thompsons matched pound for pound the contributions towards the sponsorship of the bus made by individuals who work for the firm.

Stephen Cavalier, Thompsons' chief executive, said: “Thompsons is a labour movement firm with a long history of standing up against the far right and for the interests of those we represent – people who have been subjected to mistreatment, discrimination or injustice at work. We were very proud to sponsor the Hope not Hate bus as it took its anti-BNP message to the constituencies where far right parties present the biggest threat to the interests of justice for working people.”

For more information, visit the Hope not Hate website

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Justice for Asbestos Families

Thompsons Solicitors called for support in its campaign to achieve justice for families who have been affected by asbestos across the UK. We campaigned for families to be treated equally throughout the UK. At present families affected by mesothelioma in England and Wales are not entitled to the same compensation for the same conditions, as bereaved families in Scotland who can claim thousands of pounds more in compensation. Our campaign sought to change to the law.

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Thompsons calls for an insurance fund of last resort

The fatal asbestos cancer mesothelioma can take many decades to develop, all too often the employer has long since disappeared by the time the victim or their family need to claim. The records of who insured the employer have often disappeared too. Particularly reckless employers may have had no insurance at all.

When someone is exposed to deadly asbestos fibres at work and goes on to develop an often terminal disease, the least they or their family should expect is compensation from the employer or its insurer. If the insurer cannot be traced and the employer is no longer in business then the victim and their family get no compensation - even though there is no question that the employer was to blame.

Thompsons is calling on the Government to set up an Employers Liability Insurance Bureau (ELIB) - similar to the Motor Insurance Bureau which compensates the victims of uninsured drivers.

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