The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, APIL, along with support groups representing sufferers of asbestos related diseases, has called on the government to establish a compulsory national database of employers’ liability insurance policies. The database is seen as the solution to the problem of tracing the relevant insurers when making a claim for industrial disease compensation.
Over the years, thousands of industrial disease sufferers have been unable to make a claim because they or their solicitors could not locate the relevant insurance company. As this is something that is of great interest to industrial disease sufferers, today I have decided to take a look at the steps a solicitor would currently take to track down an insurance policy for a company that may have closed down in the period between a worker’s exposure to harm and their developing symptoms.
The first and most obvious step when trying to locate an insurance policy for a company that may have closed would be to write to the last known address of that company. Although this is usually a fruitless task, occasionally the current occupants will have the contact details of their predecessors, or a useful piece of information about their current whereabouts. However most of the time this step is unsuccessful, as industrial premises may have been demolished, or been built on in the years since the company stopped trading.
The next step in the investigation would be to look for details on the official UK government register of companies kept at Companies House. The register of companies kept by Companies House has over 1,000,000 entries, dating back to 1844, and a search there will usually turn up the details if they are on file. Where a company has changed it’s name or has been bought out by another firm it may still be possible to find the details through Companies House, provided you know what you are looking for.
The final resort in tracking down a particular company in order to make a workers’ compensation claim against it would be to place an advert in the press, usually in the area where the company was formerly located. Alternatively, your solicitors may decide to appeal to other law firms who may have dealt with claims against the same company, and specialist legal publications such as Legal & Medical magazine have dedicated sections for law firms to request information such as company details from other members of the legal profession.
For more information on claims for workplace accidents and industrial disease claims against companies that may no longer be in business, or may be trading under a different name or at a different location, contact Camps Solicitors. Our workplace injury lawyers will give you an honest assessment of the likelihood of bringing a claim, and if we agree to take your case on you won’t pay us a penny win or lose.
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