Compensation solicitor sold out miners and fled to Spain

Russel Young is being sued by the ex-pitmen who claim he was negligent in advising them to accept paltry pay-outs for the crippling industrial disease vibration white finger.

Young was paid more than £1.5 million by the Government for dealing with 3,025 compensation claims, picking up fixed costs of ?500 for each one.

The Newcastle solicitor was struck off and branded a disgrace to his profession in 1999 and then fled to Majorca.

He went behind the backs of a joint group of solicitors fighting for fair compensation pay-outs to do his own deal with the Government. Among those bringing the case is 76-year-old Jim Marley, from Fatfield, Washington, Tyne and Wear, who spent 42 years down the pit since the age of 14.

Jim accepted a pay-out of £1,450 in May 1997 just months before the test cases at the High Court at Newcastle.

Under that scheme he would have received more than £8,000 but has since been told by his solicitors he could now have a claim for more than £20,000.

He retired in 1982 when he began developing problems with his hands. In 1995 Russell Young took up his case for compensation.

Looking at his twisted fingers Jim, who is married to Mary, 69, said: "My hands are in a terrible state.

"It is sickening to think he was paid so much money while people like me were picking up cheques for just a thousand pounds.

"What he did was wrong - and then he did a runner to Spain. I'm sure there are a lot more old miners who missed out like me. I would urge them all to come forward.

"I wasn't told anything, the cheque just arrived in the post and I thought that was it.

"I thought when it came through it wasn't much. It was only afterwards, talking to people in the club and the like, that it seemed I had got less than other people."

Young's former clients picked up payments as low as £400 when other solicitors were winning compensation of more than £15,000 for the same illness.

The Department of Trade and Industry have confirmed the average pay-out to Russell Young's clients was only £1,900. But he still picked up his £500 cheque no matter how low the compensation.

The claims date back to 1996 and 1997 when Young ignored pleas from the joint group of solicitors to settle claims for victims of vibration white finger.

The legal actions allege that he was negligent in not advising his clients to wait for compensation under the Government scheme.

The first case will come before the High Court in London next week.

Some of the payments were made shortly before a landmark deal in 1997 upping payment to victims of the disease.

In September 1997 seven former pitmen won a landmark case at the High Court at Newcastle with pay-outs ranging from £41,000 to £11,000.

But in March that year Young had cut his own deal with British Coal with the lowest settlement at £400 and the highest at £2,640.

The Government has refused to increase miners' compensation, saying they had legal advice and accepted offers made by the Department of Trade and Industry's claims handlers.

But a letter from former Energy minister John Battle in 1998 says offers made prior to the 1997 payments decision include "scope for negotiating an uplift to the rates in light of the final agreement".

Now the DTI have said that does not apply to final settlements which have been accepted.

Lawyers from across the country are preparing to launch legal claims on behalf of hundreds of clients fighting to win hundreds of thousands in extra compensation.

The claims against Young will transfer to his insurers the Solicitor's Indemnity Fund, because he went bankrupt owing £500,000 in tax when he was struck off.

Philip Ballard from Newcastle solicitors Thompsons, who is representing Jim Marley, has more than 50 clients suing Young for negligence.

Now the clock is ticking for hundreds of Young's other clients to come forward.

Claims against the solicitor must be started within six years of the deal and for many of Young's former clients that runs out at the start of next year.

Mr Ballard said: "Thousands of people accepted offers that were inadequate. Then after the decision in September 1997 a lot of people found out what the levels of awards really were.

"We are processing a number of claims against Russell Young and there are a lot more out there. At the moment we are putting ourselves in a position where we are ready to go with these claims."

More than 300 former North-East miners are being represented by Bristol-based solicitors Burroughs Day.

Solicitor Angharad Pigdon, said: "It is absolutely astonishing that so many people have been caught up in this. The scale of it all is just huge.

"The lowest settlement we have seen by Russell Young was for £400 when similar cases were getting up to £15,000."

Newcastle lawyer Roger Maddox is chairman of the Solicitors Steering Group which negotiated with British Coal and the DTI to draw up a compensation scheme.

Mr Maddox who worked for Thompsons at the time wrote to Young in May 1997 urging him not to break ranks from the joint steering group.

He said: "The steering group wrote to Russell Young because we knew he was doing his own deals. He was asked to wait because it presented a united front and was the best thing for his clients but he ignored that."

Later that year the solicitors steering group wrote to Margaret Beckett, President of the Board of Trade, with their concerns about under settlements.

Philip Browell, of Newcastle law firm Browell, Smith & Co, is handling up to 15,000 compensation cases for former miners. He is also has clients pursuing claims against Young.

There are also law firms in Yorkshire, including Raley Solicitors, preparing hundreds of claims for ex-miners against Young.

Any miners who accepted a compensation deal from Russell Young who feel they may have missed out should contact their union or solicitors.

Young was also a former director and shareholder of Industrial Disease Compensation (IDC), based in Ashington, which referred hundreds of compensation claims for ex-miners to his law firm.

He later resigned from IDC which made complaints about Young to the solicitors watchdog.

In October 1999 Young was struck off and branded a disgrace after he was found guilty by a tribunal of financial irregularities.

He fled to Majorca, where he is still believed to be, after going bankrupt owing £500,000 in tax.

The divorced father of three was the subject of an investigation by the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors after a string of clients' complaints.

The OSS discovered very serious problems with his firm Russell Young in Market Street, Newcastle, which had closed down, and began investigating further.

The solicitors professional watchdog branded him 'one of the worst villains of the solicitors world'.

Officers found accounts had not been filed two years' running and accounting rules had been breached.

The OSS spent six months trying to track him down. Young eventually showed up renewing his membership at Slaley Hall Golf Club in Northumberland.

After the OSS's investigation Young was called to a Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal, but he failed to attend.

Instead he sent an e-mail from Majorca saying he could not deny the allegations but described the account debit as "an arithmetic shortage".

It was not the first time a firm he has been involved with has run into financial trouble.

In 1985 a Tyneside hotel group, of which he was executive director, went into liquidation owing £488,000 in tax.

In March 1996 the firm was taken to court by the director of Baileys Blinds in Longbenton for non-payment of a £400 bill.

The debt was finally settled two days before court and seven months after the blinds were originally installed.

One year later Mr Young was personally served a writ by The Union Group who claimed he was more than £80,000 behind on rent for offices in Neville Street, Newcastle. That case was also settled out of court.