Lawyers offer free hearing tests to factory workers for compensation claims
DOZENS of former factory workers who had their hearing damaged in the workplace could be in line for thousands of pounds of compensation.
Employees whose health has suffered due to noisy machinery have been urged to attend a free clinic in Crewe.
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BATTLE: How The Sentinel reported news of the fight for noise compensation.
They are being hosted by Hartshill-based injury lawyers Attwood Solicitors.
Last year, the law firm helped more than 100 ex-potters in Stoke-on-Trent pursue similar compensation claims.
Lawyers say older and retired workers are suffering hearing loss after being subjected to high levels of noise during the 1970s and 1980s.
And the results from a five-minute hearing test will determine whether a claim for compensation can be made.
Successful cases have already been bought by Attwood against former Sandbach truck-maker Foden, pictured below.
Lawyer Ashley Attwood said the firm had been inundated with enquiries after holding similar sessions in the city last year. Claimants secured as much as £10,000.
Mr Attwood said: "If the person was relatively young and had to wear a hearing aid for many years, we could be talking tens of thousands.
"Many workers who experienced hearing loss while working in extremely noisy environments have simply had to put up with it.
"Often people suffer in silence and don't believe they have a right to compensation."
To claim, workers have to prove they were exposed to more than 80 decibels of noise, equivalent to the sound of an alarm clock, at work.
Compensation money comes from employers' insurers, which can be traced even if a firm has shut down.
Former textile worker Marian Edmondson, of Nantwich, last year secured £1,500 in compensation after a case against VG Garments, in Crewe, which had ceased trading.
Marian's exposure to noise led to reduced hearing and tinnitus.
The 56-year-old said: "I thought I would just have to put up with it until I was told I had a right to compensation."
The clinic, runs from 10am to 5pm at the Crewe Arms Hotel, Nantwich Road, on Tuesday, April 27.
For more information, call Attwood Solicitors on 01782 416016.
3 Comments
by E.B., Stoke
Tuesday, April 06 2010, 6:24PM
“The point Billy is on about is, Whereby the client gets a measly amount of a feww thousand,the slimy solicitors get massive fees from this.
Solicitors are the new Estate agents in the hating stakes.”
by Mark, Norton
Tuesday, April 06 2010, 2:49PM
“Billy I disagree. My mother worked for 46 years working a tile press and has suffered with hearing deficiency since 1972 but has never made a claim. She never went to see Deep Purple either. Would she be so wrong to make a claim? I doubt she will even bother anyway.”
by Billy the Fish, Newcastle
Tuesday, April 06 2010, 10:53AM
“And we wonder why our insurance premiums keep going up - this is ambulance chasing opportunism in the extreme. I went to many rock concerts as a youngster and my ears still ring now - should I sue Motorhead, Deep Purple and AC/DC? I think not - the trouble with lawyers is that they give lawyers a bad name!”