OP litigation funding renewed

There is new hope for a group of litigants in the test case for organophosphate poisoning victims: public funding of their legal action has been reinstated. Herefordshire solicitors Gabb & Co have won their appeal to the Legal Services Commission (formerly the Legal Aid Board), six months after the claims were dropped by the groups’ generic solicitors, Hodge Jones & Allen. 
    The latter firm, contracted by the Legal Services Commission to gather all the evidence for the legal action, concluded that there was insufficient for these cases to proceed. But the LSC Appeal Committee, after a marathon hearing on 26 January, disagreed. 
    Mrs Elisabeth Charles, of Gabb & Co, said: ‘The only fair way to decide whether the severely debilitating injuries that these claimants have undoubtedly suffered are caused by organophosphates or not is to ask a judge in a proper court hearing. This is an issue of major public interest to the farming community.’
    The next stage, known as the ‘Part 24 striking out application’ will be a challenge by the manufacturers of the medical evidence supporting the claims, anticipated to proceed in late summer or early autumn. 

Anyone else wishing to make a claim for OP poisoning should apply now for public funding. Contact Mrs Charles at Gabb & Co for further information: 01497 820312, lis.charles@gabb.co.uk, see also PEX Newsletter 9.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No.51, March 2001, p23]