Occupational Asthma FAQs
Here are some common questions and answers about Occupational Asthma.
If your question is not answered here, please use the form on the right-hand side and one of our team will get back to you as soon as possible.
What is Occupational Asthma?
Asthma is a body defence reaction to the perceived threats from exposure to dust, vapours or fumes and in sufferers, the windpipe becomes inflamed and lungs may tighten causing shortness of breath symptoms.
If you suffer asthma at work and have worked with any of the substances listed here, you may have a claim for occupational asthma. You do not still have to be employed in those conditions, employees have been under a duty for many years to ensure workplaces are safe, including reducing the rick of exposure to substances known to cause or contribute to respiratory illness.
Can I make a claim?
You need not be still employed by your employer to make an occupational asthma claim and you don’t need to have had medical treatment for your condition to make a claim. You can claim even if the exposure occurred decades ago, but usually for most types of workplace hearing loss, the exposure must have occurred since 1961. If you have the above symptoms, we will give you free, no obligation advice as to whether you have a claim.
What do I have to pay?
Since our firm was established 13 years ago, we prided ourselves on our clients receiving 100% of their compensation. As solicitors, we claim our legal fees from our opponents on top of any compensation and therefore, we gave the guarantee that our clients receive 100% compensation.
However, following Government changes and the introduction of the Legal aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act which came into force on the 1 April 2013, we are now not able to recover all of our legal fees from our opponent and therefore only on successful cases, we do make a small charge from our client’s compensation.
Therefore, if you are successful in your claim there will be a charge of up to 20% of your compensation. If for whatever reason, you are unsuccessful we will make no charge for our work and therefore our agreement remains a no win, no fee agreement.
Given the new rules will allow solicitors and claims management companies to charge a fee of up to 50% of the compensation awarded (and we are aware of firms who do this), we think our small deduction is very competitive and keeping in the tradition of ensuring clients get the maximum, and as much of the compensation as possible.
What does “No Win, No Fee” actually mean?
It is simple: if you do not succeed in your claim, you pay nothing.
Will I have to fill out loads of paperwork?
No, we will be able to do most of the necessary paperwork for you. You will have to check the details of your claim before it is submitted, but we will assist you with this.
