If you would like to find out more about any of our practice areas or barristers please get in touch here. Our experienced practice management team will be pleased to provide you with more details and answer any questions you may have.

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Industrial or occupational disease claims arise from exposure to toxic or hazardous substances or dangerous conditions in the workplace. Environmental disease litigation, similarly, arises from exposure to toxic or hazardous substances or dangerous environments.

The industrial and environmental disease team has extensive experience of a range of conditions, including:

  • Asbestos-related diseases including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis
  • Cancers such as myeloma or Hodgkin’s lymphoma
  • Asthma
  • Silicosis claims
  • Noise-induced hearing loss
  • Non-freezing cold injuries

Outer Temple barristers have been at the forefront of disease litigation for many years. We acted in Fairchild v Glenhaven, the seminal case on causation in mesothelioma claims. We also appeared in the Greenway v Johnson Matthey litigation, a groundbreaking case on sensitisation as a result of exposure to a hazardous substance at work.

Asbestos Disease

We are a standout set for asbestos litigation. Our expertise is regularly sought out in the most complex and high value mesothelioma claims. We also frequently act in lung cancer, asbestosis and diffuse pleural thickening claims. We have close links with several asbestos support charities including Mesothelioma UK. Members of chambers edit and contribute to Asbestos Law and Litigation, published by Sweet and Maxwell and now in its second edition.

Asthma

Our experience in claims involving asthma includes occupational exposure and also asthma arising from unfit living conditions, particularly claims involving children living in damp or mouldy homes.

Military claims

A particular area of expertise is occupational disease arising out of military service. Our barristers are involved in group litigation representing thousands of veterans and serving personnel who have sustained noise-induced hearing loss and non-freezing cold injuries.

Group Litigation

Our industrial disease expertise also crosses over with our travel law and group litigation practices and members of chambers have been involved in several international group actions, including South African claims involving asbestos related disease and silicosis.

 

Industrial & Environmental Disease Experience

Members of chambers have appeared in many of the landmark cases which have defined and shaped this area of the law:

  • Fairchild v Glenhaven: the landmark case on causation in mesothelioma claims.
  • Coventry v Lawrence: in the Supreme Court on behalf of a national asbestos charity challenging the government on CFA success fees.
  • Greenway v Johnson Matthey: establishing liability for sensitivity arising from occupational exposure.
  • Carder v University of Exeter: Court of Appeal judgment on the test for actionable damage in an asbestosis claim. 
  • White v Secretary of State for Health & Social Care: in the Court of Appeal concerning the appropriate test for low asbestos exposure cases before the so-called ‘watershed’ in 1965.
  • Rix v Paramount Shopfitting Co Ltd: Widely reported first instance and Court of Appeal decisions dealing with financial dependency on a “wealth creator” in a fatal mesothelioma claim.
  • Winter v Scarborough College: A widely reported school exposure case. The deceased had low level asbestos exposure as a pupil which caused mesothelioma.
  • Cape “Afrika” litigation – on behalf of several thousand South African asbestos miners.  
  • Haxton v Philips Electronics UK Ltd: on behalf of the claimant at trial and in the Court of Appeal. Claimant widow who then contracted mesothelioma as a result of the same defendant’s negligence which created a novel head of damages.
  • Ghoorah v West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group and others: appeared at trial for the claimant widow in this fatal mesothelioma claim. Highest ever general damages award in a mesothelioma case.
  • Fricker v Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust Living mesothelioma claim, acting for a nurse who was exposed to asbestos while working in a hospital.
  • Bannister v Freemans Plc: decision of the High Court on causation in low exposure mesothelioma case.
  • Rothwell v Chemical & Insulating Co Ltd: the pleural plaques litigation.
  • Anglo American Plc. litigation: acting on behalf of over a thousand South African gold miners suffering with silica / tuberculosis related diseases.
  • Barry v Ministry of Defence: on behalf of a Royal Marine forced to retire from the service as a result of noise induced hearing loss during service.
  • Inglis v Ministry of Defence: high value noise-induced hearing loss as a result of exposure in the course of military service.

Industrial & Environmental Disease Barristers

Harry Steinberg

Harry Steinberg KC

Call: 1997 Silk: 2016

Matthew Phillips KC

Call: 1993 Silk: 2017

Ian Denham

Call: 2003

Will Young

Call: 2008

Aliyah Akram

Call: 2012

Lorna Badham

Lorna Badham

Call: 2015

Olinga Tahzib

Call: 2016

Carin Hunt

Call: 2018

Chaitanya Kediyal

Chaitanya Kediyal

Call: 2022

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