Legal Complaints Service to monitor repayments to former miners

The Law Society Gazette has revealed that some firms of solicitors handling coal miners' health compensation claims have handed back £1.5m to injured former miners under a new voluntary repayment scheme.

Seven solicitors firms that handled the claims have written to former miners who may be eligible to recover costs that were unfairly deducted from their damages under "no win no fee” agreements.   

It is estimated that as many as 50,000 former miners are still to be contacted.

Some solicitors kept the success fee they had deducted from the compensation, while others paid the "referral” fees to the miners' unions which had sold the claims onto them.

The Legal Complaints Service is monitoring the repayments made by firms.

Thompsons solicitors, a national Trade Union firm is one of the seven firms that has already contacted former miners.

The LCS cannot name the solicitors firms involved because of confidentiality agreements.