Hodge Jones & Allen

Industrial Disease

Lorna, a Partner within the Asbestos and Workplace Illness Team, has, for 26 years, specialised in handling asbestos disease claims for claimants.  As such, she is a recognised and proven expert in this niche area.

Lorna regularly obtains six-figure settlements for her clients. In addition to the main damages payment obtained, she also secures agreements that the costs of recommended medical treatment not available on the NHS will be covered for her clients.

Lorna is a specialist in all asbestos disease cases including mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, asbestosis and pleural thickening.. She has extensive experience in acting for claimants across all these conditions, both in living and fatal matters.

Lorna enjoys a challenging case and was recently successful in securing a six-figure settlement in a fatal mesothelioma case, which included claims for 2 adult dependents.  The case settled just a few weeks before the final Court hearing.

Another success for Lorna was for a client suffering from mesothelioma, in which she concluded the case within 4 months from first instruction, including the issuing of High Court proceedings.  To settle a mesothelioma case this quickly required a methodical and meticulous way of working and an ability to push the case forward as quickly as possible.

In one of Lorna’s other settlements, she obtained damages for a client suffering from asbestos-related pleural thickening. The client has significant non-asbestos health conditions, which are going to impact upon his life expectancy, and yet Lorna was able to secure him a very good settlement for the pleural thickening through her preparation of the case and negotiation skills.

Lorna does not shy away from difficult cases, always actively keeps her clients’ claims moving forward and she will issue Court proceedings whenever required to ensure justice and the correct level of damages are obtained. Lorna always has cases which involve multi-defendants but due to her logical and careful way of working, she has no issues at all dealing with these cases and in fact relishes in such complexity!

Lorna’s wealth of experience covers cases for living clients and in fatal matters, across all asbestos diseases.  Lorna is an expert in instantly knowing the detailed legal requirements of each asbestos-related disease when pursuing a damages claim and she quickly progresses cases by securing relevant evidence across breach of duty, causation and quantum.  She also assists clients in bringing claims in America for mesothelioma caused by contaminated talcum powder and make-up products.

Lorna works closely with local asbestos support charities, most notably the London Asbestos Support Awareness Group which she was involved in establishing and continues to support and provide legal assistance to.

More recently, Lorna has developed a specialisation in noise-induced hearing loss claims arising from Military Service.  Lorna’s clients in this very specialised area of industrial disease are current or former Service personnel who have been exposed to excessive noise when carrying out their duties in the Army, RAF, Navy or specialist Marines.

Lorna swiftly identified the legal issues that commonly run through occupational disease cases and applied the knowledge she has from her extensive asbestos disease practice to the noise-induced hearing loss claims in relation to those common issues.  She is currently pursuing a number of these matters against the MOD.

The Military noise-induced hearing loss claims require a detailed understanding about the way noise was suffered by Service personnel, and Lorna has gained a vast understanding of this in a short period of time, and she confidently continues to develop her skills in this specialist industrial disease area.

Lorna is a campaigner and will fight for those who are unfairly treated by the law, including the setting up of a petition which attracted television coverage. Lorna has appeared on national live television, has been quoted in The Times newspaper and other national newspapers and has been interviewed on live radio to talk about asbestos disease matters.

Lorna is known to be a calm and proactive case handler and has an enviable skill of being able to find a practical solution in a difficult or unusual situation. Her clients comment that she is down to earth, friendly and explains legal matters in a clear and reassuring way.  Lorna never forgets that many of her clients are approaching death because of their asbestos disease, and she deals with that appropriately and sympathetically.

Lorna’s expertise is recognised by those she works with and through independent accreditation by The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), of which she is an Asbestos and Occupational Disease specialist.

Lorna trained and worked at Thompsons LLP in London and Dagenham. She has been a Partner at Hodge Jones & Allen in London since January 2020.

APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers): Accredited Asbestos and Occupational Disease Specialist.