Lawyers accused of exploiting sick miners

TWO Yorkshire lawyers earned millions by exploiting sick miners’ compensation claims, a disciplinary tribunal was told yesterday.

Doncaster-based James Beresford, 58, and Douglas Smith, 51, earned combined salaries of more than £23m in 2006, specialising in helping miners win payouts from the Government’s coal health compensation scheme.

The pair went before the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal in London yesterday to face 11 charges of serious professional misconduct.

Working for Beresfords Solicitors in Doncaster, they are accused of making payments to the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM) in return for having cases referred their way, disguised as being in lieu of union subscriptions.

They are said to have paid one official at the UDM, through a separate company she set up in January 2002, a total of £736,186.30 under a “claims handling agreement”.

Timothy Dutton QC, prosecuting, said Beresfords solicitors ‘misled’ thousands of clients by pressing them into signing ‘no win, no fee’ agreements that were not in their best interests. The firm took an average quarter cut of the damages.

The firm acted in more than 83,000 cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and more than 14,500 cases of vibration white finger.

The annual earnings of Mr Beresford and Mr Smith, who both deny 11 counts of misconduct, stood at about £182,000 in 2000 before they started raking in millions acting for colliery workers.

The solicitors’ firm expanded rapidly with the advent of the coal claims. By 2004, Beresfords had a gross profit of £8,758,743 and by 2006 the profit had risen to £36,205,805.

In comparison, thousands of miners received payouts of only several hundred pounds or less.

The tribunal in London continues.