James
Beresford may be Britain’s richest solicitor. He made £17m in just one year
from handling miners’ compensation schemes. His firm took 25% of the damages as
a contingency fee. In fact the Department of trade and Industry was prepared to
pay their costs, so all compensation would go straight to the miners. For the
97,000 who claimed through his firm for lung and respiratory problems or
‘vibration white finger’ average compensation was just over £2,000. Tens of
thousands got less than £1,000. The smallest claim was just 50p.
