Lawford Kidd's Blog

Lawford Kidd's senior partner, David Sandison, has written to the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament expressing his concern that the Bill is unfair to those making a personal injury claim and denies them access to expert personal injury advice. The new Bill proposes that permission to instruct an Advocate will only be automatically granted when the value of the case exceeds £150,000. This is, as David says, "clearly unacceptable.". The full text of his letter is below.

Court Reform (Scotland) Bill 2014
I am writing as senior partner of Lawford Kidd, and accredited personal injury specialist recognised both by the Law Society of Scotland and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. I was also involved with the Civil Justice Committee of the Law Society in connection with their submission on the Bill.

I wanted to draw the Justice Committee’s attention to one specific aspect of the Bill and that relates to the sanction of counsel (either advocate or solicitor advocate), in the Sheriff Court under the new court structure.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has recently highlighted the need to improve workplace health and safety in the manufacturing sector.

A risky place to work

The sector is a huge employer, currently accounting for around 10% of the British workforce, but can also be a risky place to work. Around one in five notifiable workplace fatalities and reported injuries occur in manufacturing, and workers can also face additional risks to their health through workplace exposures.

In the last year alone, an estimated 3.1 million working days were lost due to accidents and ill health in the sector.

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) is warning drivers about the dangers of distracted driving after research found that nearly one in ten (9%) of drivers admit to crashing their cars because they were distracted. Just under one in twenty drivers (4%) say that someone was injured in the crash.

The IAM/Vision Critical survey, which polled nearly 1500 regular UK drivers aged 18 years and over, also found that of the 500 divers who admitted to having a near miss, almost one in five (18%) then went on have a crash.  

The most common distractions are:

One of Lawford Kidd's PI solicitors was interviewed from the Law Society’s Civil Justice Committee discussed the Courts Reform (Scotland) Bill on BBC Newsdrive on Friday 7th February BBC Newsdrive (broadcast starts at 01:36:00)

A new project was launched recently to help inform future research into the best way to treat and care for mesothelioma sufferers.

The survey is being conducted by the ‘Mesothelioma Priority Setting Partnership’ (PSP), which was recently set up by non-profit group the James Lind Alliance and is being funded by the National Institute for Health Research, a government body.

A deadly disease

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that mainly affects the lining of the lungs and is caused by breathing in asbestos fibres. The disease is usually fatal, and symptoms do not become apparent until decades after the initial exposure, by which point it is too late for surgical intervention.