The Legal Services Complaints Commissioner Zahida Manzoor has published a special report into how the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) dealt with objections from sick miners about fees they were charged by solicitors.

She is critical that some miners suffered distress or inconvenience but did not receive any compensation for this and said those that did not should have their cases reopened, along with those who did not receive a full refund of fees.

Warsop MP John Mann has been fighting to win back money for miners suffering from Vibration White Finger and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which solicitors have wrongly deducted and welcomed the report.

He backs the call by the commissioner for cases settled through conciliation to be reopened and hit out at the small number of solicitors firms who have refused to pay out despite being adjudicated against.

Said Mr Mann: "The dishonourable role of greedy solicitors continues to grow. Decent honest miners and widows, often very elderly and sick, are being cheated by the legal profession. Those refusing to pay out in full must be struck off.

"When will the silent majority of decent solicitors speak out and act against this cancer in their midst. Never have so many sick and dying people been so exploited by the establishment."

The report by commissioner Ms Manzoor also highlights 'administrative failures and ineffective management controls', which has meant ill pit workers have lost out on compensation.

Her report said miners whose cases were resolved through the process of adjudication rather than conciliation were more likely to receive greater compensation — but not all were made aware of the option of adjudication.

The report says: "I highlight the case of six individual miners who, in 2007, have shown real persistence in their complaints.

"Despite being encouraged to conciliate by the LCS they refused and insisted their complaints should be investigated and adjudicated.

"Through their persistence each of these miners has on average correctly received an additional £1,700 compensation from their solicitors."

But the chief executive of the Legal Complaints Service, Deborah Evans, has described the commissioner's report as 'unduly harsh' and said it does not take account of the good work being done by the organisation.

She said: "It takes a very negative view of activities that have actually been very positive. We have been providing a good service throughout 2007 for miners seeking to recover improper deductions from their compensation claim but none of our proactivity is given any notice at all."

Ms Evans said very few miners had complaints relating to distress or inconvenience and said there were no fundamental administrative or management flaws.

Click here to read the full report
http://www.olscc.gov.uk/pdfs/miners_special_report.pdf