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OP litigation suffers setback
An attempt by 25 farmers and workers to sue agrochemical
companies or employers for the ill-health they now suffer as a result of
exposure to organophosphate sheep dips has almost completely collapsed. But one
firm of solicitors has announced that they intend to fight on.
The legal action, initially involving over 60 separate cases,
and hundreds more applications, were consolidated into a group-case in 1999. If
compensation was successfully won, the case would be a land-mark for other
victims of OP exposure.
Earlier this year, the leading firm of solicitors Hodge,
Jones & Allen pulled out, saying that ‘We have not been able to find the
evidence to prove the link between [the litigants’] symptoms and
organophosphates in sheep dips … we are not able to justify the further
expenditure of public funds by the Legal Services Commission (formerly the Legal
Aid Board) on this group action.’
Mrs Elisabeth Charles, of Gabb & Co, in Hay-on-Wye, says:
‘There is no doubt the sheep dippers and others affected by organophosphates
that I have seen deserve compensation. I feel considerable concern about the
rationale provided by the generic solicitors for advising that the claims could
not succeed.’
Gabb & Co have lodged an appeal with the Legal Services
Commission, and lawyers will argue that genuine claimants are being denied
access to the courts. This could be a contravention of the newly implemented
Human Rights Act 1998.