Controversy Surronds Britain's Richest Solicitor

Fri, 13 Apr 2007

A solicitor specialising in winning compensation for sick miners in the Government compensation scheme has been named the richest in the country.

Jim Beresford, a partner of Doncaster-based family firm Beresfords, earned around £16.75 million in 2006, making him the highest-earning solicitor in Britain. Miners' campaigners criticised the compensation system, which gives a flat-rate fee of £2,000 to lawyers .

Figures show that Mr Beresford, who lives near Wetherby, West Yorkshire, has been paid £97.8 million since 2000.

The lawyer declined to comment, but a statement from the firm said the company had secured more claims for former miners with respiratory problems than any other in the country - a total of £180 million.

The Beresfords firm represented workers who had suffered from breathing problems caused from mining work .

The money was claimed from the government's £7.5 billion compensation scheme, which was set up after British Coal was found to have been negligent over respiratory diseases and vibration white finger . The lawyers received an average flat-rate fee of £2,125 per claim .

Miners' campaigner Lord Lofthouse said, "It's absolutely appalling giving those amounts for men who worked all that time in those conditions. They'd be getting about £200 or £300 and the solicitors would be getting about £2,000, in my view, for very little work ."

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is currently completing its own investigation into the conduct of law firms.
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