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Thompsons Solicitors
Thompsons Solicitors for The Legal Line: A History Through the Cases
Introduction
The Beginning
Thompsons was initially formed in 1921 by W.H. Thompson and since then has gone on to become the leading firm of employment and trade union lawyers in the country.
Beginning initially with a primary involvement in Civil Liberties cases during the 1930s, the firm has progressed through the years to become involved in a variety of work, with the focus now mainly on personal injury, industrial disease and employment law matters.
Changing the Law
Post war the firm experienced a period of rapid growth, based largely on its excellent reputation amongst some of the larger trade unions for providing the best advice possible. During this period, more and more cases were brought for injured workmen through the appeal courts and the prospects of success began to improve. The Factories Act legislation to protect workmen began to take shape.
Thompsons Solicitors went on to fight numerous test cases in relation to industrial diseases of many kinds, helping to set the law on issues such as asbestos related diseases. The firm has also engaged in major legal disputes relating to industry and trade unions, and also several well publicised industrial disputes over the years.
Looking to the Future
To date the firm continues to be actively involved in exploring new areas of law to secure and protect the rights of employees and continues to bring major litigation for the victims of asbestos exposure and mining-related conditions. Thompsons also has a leading role in the field of employment rights for trade union members, having brought many cases through both the UK and European courts.
Additionally Thompsons is involved with international issues, using their expertise in the field of industrial disease to help, for example, South African miners and their families to win a landmark settlement.
Currently, Thompsons employs over 250 lawyers. In 2005 alone the firm has recovered £175 million in compensation for those suffering personal injury or industrial disease and for a variety of other claims.
Case History
An overview of a small selection of Thompsons’ cases over the years follows, which should give you some idea as to the work and successes achieved.
2. Personal Injury Cases - Early Developments and Breakthroughs
3. Personal Injury - Campaigns and Test Cases
4. Personal Injury - Campaigns and Test Cases Continued
6. Personal Injury - Asbestos - The Fight Goes On
Summary
In every area of personal injury law for the past 90 years Thompsons Solicitors have been the country’s leading firm in the fight for compensation for injured people.
The case law has extended the boundaries of the law of negligence, clarified and extended the meaning of statutory regulation so that it eventually became a coherent code, and extended the law to many industrial diseases. Countless test cases have been prepared and fought in every type of industrial disease case, securing the right to compensation for millions. More than anything, the battle has not only forced employers and the insurance industry to count the cost of injury and therefore to provide for a safer working environment for all, but has also highlighted the scale of the problem of safety at work so as to encourage the government to pass more and better regulations.
The battle is never won. As workplaces change, so different risks and hazards appear. Unhappily there are many thousands of workers suffering today from hazards to which they were exposed sometimes decades ago. For example, asbestos cases are not expected to peak for several years to come.
Thompsons continues to campaign to prevent and avoid hazards and to fight test cases to secure compensation.
But there are even bigger battles to be fought. This is written at a time when once again civil liberties are being attacked. In 1938, W.H. Thompson’s book Civil Liberties concluded with this paragraph:
“There would, therefore, appear to be some lessons to be learned – some which have been learned by painful experience and forgotten. The right of association, the right to strike, the right to express unpopular opinion, the right to preach peace in the midst of war, the right to criticise and challenge authority – these and many other rights have been ruthlessly taken away in Fascist states and the democratic organisations smashed. Let us take care in this country that the totalitarian State is not introduced while we sleep. The judge, the magistrate, and the policeman are not the persons who are the most satisfactory guardians of working-class liberty; if this book has demonstrated that fact, the necessary implication surely is that liberties of the people of this country can only be preserved by the united ceaseless vigilance and struggle of all those people who believe that freedom and democracy are the inalienable rights of mankind”.
Thompsons is proud to continue to play a part in this struggle.
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