Reader's letter

Most fair-minded people would surely be as furious as the lawyers with the appeal judges' decision not to increase damages for personal serious injury/disease claims in line with the Law Commission recommendation of 50 per cent to 100 per cent (Evening Press, Lawyers Fury Over Damages, March 23).

It would seem that the appeal judges support a system which, in general, pays more damages for libel than for crippling or terminal injury/diseases, such as asbestos mesothelioma.

Is that really their idea of proper justice when the Law Commission, in their report, considered how it should never be cheaper to kill than to injure?

The judges reportedly expressed more concern for the insurance companies who pick up the bill for damages than for those who are crippled or killed.

Once it used to be said that 'talk was cheap' but with judges like these it has become 'life is cheap', especially when the asbestos deaths of York people have rarely been compensated above £150,000.

Lord Woolf and his fellow judges have clearly demonstrated how out of touch they are with the views and feelings of the public and with many of their fellows in the legal profession.

Paul W Cooper,

Branch Secretary,

TGWU, York,

Kingsway West,

Acomb, York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.