On 23 January 1998 Mr Justice Turner delivered his judgement in the longest and probably most expensive personal injury court case ever to take place in Britain, concerning respiratory disease in coal miners. The background to the trial was that many former miners in different parts of the country had initiated actions at common law against British Coal over a period of several years, some as long ago as 1989, claiming damages for occupational respiratory disease. This was disease other than pneumoconiosis for which there has for a long time been an agreed scheme of compensation by British Coal. Since 1992 there has been a "prescribed disease" of chronic bronchitis and emphysema for which Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit is payable but, as with all types of occupational disease, the sufferer is entitled to pursue an action at common law against the employer(s) responsible for causing the disease in addition to claiming benefit from the . . . [Full text of this article]