Occupational cancer

Produced in partnership with Andrew Wilson
Practice notes

Occupational cancer

Produced in partnership with Andrew Wilson

Practice notes
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This Practice Note is intended to deal with the legal principles which apply to claims of occupational cancer, but it homes in on the issue of Causation and the criteria the court will adopt in determining whether the claimant has discharged the burden of proof.

As with other Personal injury cases, the claimant will be required to show that:

  1. the defendant owed them a duty

  2. the duty was breached

  3. the breach caused damage

Duty and breach

In cases in which the claimant was employed by the defendant, argument on the existence of a duty ought to be rare.

Claimants should seek to rely on breaches of relevant statutory duties and common law Negligence.

Typically, in cases of disease alleged to have been caused by dust in a factory setting the claimant will plead, depending on when the alleged exposure occurred, breach of section 47 of the Factories Act 1937 or section 63 of the Factories Act 1961. These provisions would avail a worker who established that he was exposed to substantial quantities of dust, although there

Andrew Wilson
Andrew Wilson

Consultant Solicitor


Andrew has more than 25 years’ experience of working in the fields of personal injury and occupational disease litigation, acting for both claimants and defendants. He trained at L Bingham & Co, gaining early experience in a number of important high profile claims involving the MIB. During the 1990s Andrew worked at Hextalls and then Kennedys, predominantly for defendants across a range of motor, employers’ liability and public liability matters many of which involved serious injuries or death. More recently, he has dealt with cases for claimants who have suffered serious injuries or occupational disease. He was a partner in a large specialist practice. He has provided seminars to solicitors and other legal professionals both for an external conference company and in house on the workings of the Civil Procedure Rules in the context of personal injury claims, amongst other subjects.

He has now set up his own legal consultancy, providing advice and support to solicitors, particularly a specialist London practice, in connection with fatal accidents and very serious injury cases such as brain injury, mostly in the High Court. He has continued to develop his education and training activities, providing seminars and contributing articles and commentaries to legal information services.

Since his training, Andrew has retained a particular interest in issues of motor indemnity and the operation of the Road Traffic Act and Article 75.

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Key definition:
Causation definition
What does Causation mean?

Causation comprises the policy definitions on what in law constitutes a factual connection between an act and a consequence that in some way follows from that act.

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