Top legal handbook ranks Liverpool firm among best

Nov 20 2007 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

A LIVERPOOL law firm specialising in industrial disease cases has been named one of the best in the country for its work.

John Pickering & Partners LLP has been ranked as one of the top companies of its kind in the client law guide, Chambers 2008.

Chambers & Partners is an internationally regarded handbook that ranks the foremost law firms practising in particular specialist areas.

The guide states that John Pickering & Partners – which works for victims of industrial disease such as mesothelioma and asbestosis, occupational asthma, vibration white finger, upper limb disorder, occupational stress, dermatitis, and noise induced deafness – secured its place in Chambers’ tables thanks largely to its involvement in some landmark personal injury cases.

It reads: “For example, the team was actively employed in the pleural plaques test litigation. The firm specialises in industrial disease cases and with three offices in the North West it has the region covered for this area of work.

“It acts across the UK and is developing an international practice, helping clients as far away as Malta and New Zealand.” Commentators say: “Their expertise and understanding of the law sets them apart. Kevin Johnson is the leading light at the firm, operating out of the Liverpool office.”

It follows further regional success for the firm, which was named specialist firm of the year at the 2007 Liverpool Law Society awards.

John Pickering & Partners has represented claimants in some of the leading asbestos “test cases” of the last ten years.

The firm represented Sylvia Barker in Barker v Corus, a case that highlighted the legal tactics of employers and insurers trying to cut back their compensation liabilities to mesothelioma sufferers, and which prompted the amendment of the Compensation Act 2006 to ensure full compensation for mesothelioma claims.

The firm represented two of the three claimants in the Fairchild appeal, in which the insurance industry tried unsuccessfully to block compensation altogether for mesothelioma sufferers unable to identify which of two or more sources of asbestos exposure had caused their illness.

The firm also represented Alice Jefferson, a mesothelioma sufferer, whose illness and compensation claim against Cape Asbestos was featured in a documentary which was an important catalyst for legal change.

John Pickering, who retired in 2004, started the firm 25 years ago. It now has five partners, and up to 40 staff, spread between Manchester, Halifax and Liverpool.

vickyanderson