Asbestos Claim Advice

Welcome to the website of Boris Kremer, a UK personal injury lawyer.

If you would like an initial free assessment of your potential asbestos-related claim, please either:

Asbestos claims overview

In order to win your asbestos-related compensation claim, we will need to prove the following points, on a balance of probabilities:

• Was somebody else responsible for your safety at work?
• Was there a foreseeable risk of exposure to asbestos dust?
• Were adequate precautions taken to prevent your exposure?
• Did your exposure to asbestos dust actually cause your condition?

Duty of Care

Our first step is to try to establish that a "duty of care" (or legal responsibility) was owed to you.

In previous asbestos-related claims, the following have been held to owe a duty of care:

• Your employer (or ex-employer)
• The owner (or controller) of the premises where you were sent to work
• Other contractors (and/or their employees) working nearby
• The owner of premises where asbestos was processed, even though you did not actually work there

Foreseeability

Next we need to prove that your exposure was foreseeable.

To do so, we need evidence of the following:

• Your description of the circumstances of your exposure
• The type of asbestos used. Different types of asbestos present different levels of danger, for example, crocidolite (blue asbestos) can be roughly 500 times more dangerous than chrysotile (white asbestos)
• How many days, weeks or months your exposure lasted
• During that time, the intensity of your exposure to asbestos dust

Breach of duty

Our next step is to prove breach of duty, in order words that somebody else failed to keep you safe, who should have done.

One major issue is when your exposure took place. Over the years, public knowledge of the risks of asbestos dust has increased. Generally speaking, asbestos claims arising from exposure from 1965 onwards are more likely to succeed.

Usually, the breach of duty will be dealt with by factual evidence, such as:

• Were you warned about asbestos?
• Was dust extraction equipment provided?
• Were respirators provided and/or an insufficient supply of filters?

Causation

Next we need to prove that your condition was actually caused by exposure to asbestos dust.

To establish causation, we will first need to have a diagnosis of your condition and secondly a medical link to your exposure.

Previous Claims

I have previously helped a number of different victims of asbestos exposure (and their widows) to obtain compensation, including:

• A carpenter exposed to asbestos dust by the work of nearby contractors, while working at a new television centre in Birmingham;



• A production worker exposed to large quantities of dust while employed at the Dicks Eagle asbestos factory in East London;



• An individual who worked as an apprentice carpenter in Southampton from 1967-71 and was exposed to asbestos dust by his employers;



• A labourer and later painter employed by the Ministry of Defence at HM Naval Dockyard, Portsmouth, who spent much of his time working alongside laggers and other workmen whose job it was to remove, mix and renew asbestos lagging insulating the machinery on board ships;



• An bricklayer's labourer, who helped overhaul brick-lined ships' furnaces on board ships under repair, and in the process was exposed to asbestos dust. He later worked as a boilermaker's mate and his exposure continued;



• An individual from Gloucester who came into contact with asbestos dust while employed by a large commercial firm as a plumber and pipefitter, and who later contracted mesothelioma.

Asbestos Claim Advice from a UK personal injury solicitor