LAWYERS handling compensation claims by ex-miners and their families face a potential cash bonanza of more than a billion pounds.

New Government figures show that solicitors handling industrial disease claims by 245,000 miners and their families have already been paid £418m in fees.

With 455,000 miners still waiting for final settlement of their claims for respiratory disease and a condition called Vibration White Finger, the final legal bill could top a billion pounds.

Concern at the spiralling costs of dealing with the largest industrial disease compensation scheme in history are believed to be behind current efforts to limit payouts for many people, as exclusively reported in The Northern Echo.

Proposals from the Department of Trade and Industry designed to radically speed up the processing of claims are lodged with the High Court.

It is understood that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) wishes to make modest offers to two groups of claimants: those whose lung functions appear normal, but who may still have underlying lung disease, and the families of deceased miners who have no medical records.

As part of the new proposals, claimants who turn down an offer would not be allowed a full medical assessment, a process which has often led to substantial payouts.

But lawyers representing pitmen and their families have warned that they are opposed to proposals that would bar claimants from having more medical tests if they turn down an offer.

Speculation about the final legal bill faced by the DTI was triggered after officials confirmed that, with 245,000 settled claims since the scheme started, the total so far is £418m.

But the bill for legal fees, which range from a minimum of £550 to a maximum of £2,100 per settled claim, is only part of the cost of this massive and unparalleled exercise in industrial disease compensation.

The DTI will also have to meet the bill for claim handling assessment which is being carried out by the private company, IRISC.

Apart from organising basic lung-function tests, the company is also involved in hiring chest physicians needed to assess lung disease.

Yesterday, the DTI declined to disclose details of the fees which have already been paid to IRISC or the estimated costs of processing more than 700,000 claims.

A DTI spokesman said: "Since the scheme started a total of £418m has been paid out in solicitors' fees, £330m for respiratory disease claims and £88m for Vibration White Finger claims."

However, the spokesman stressed that up to £8bn over and above the cost of processing claims had been set aside to compensate miners.

So far, £1.2bn has been paid out in compensation for respiratory claims and another £1bn has gone to victims of Vibration White Finger, a disabling condition linked to operating heavy machinery.

The DTI spokesman said the minimum fee paid to a solicitor when a claim is settled is £550 rising to a maximum of £2,100.

Confirmation that thousands of pounds are being paid to lawyers when many claimants receive relatively little was criticised by retired miner JohnWalton, from Ferryhill, County Durham.

Mr Walton, 62, recently received a cheque for £76.19 from Newcastle solicitors Mark Gilbert Morse in settlement of his claim on behalf of his father George, who died in 1961, aged 62.

"My father worked in the mines from 1913 until having to take early retirement in 1956," said Mr Walton.

As a hewer, Mr Walton senior worked at the face, breathing in clouds of coaldust. "He used to cough every morning," said Mr Walton.

"What annoys me is that people who have never been anywhere near a pit are getting large sums of money, yet the man who was at the coal face is getting next to nothing," he added.

John Morse, a partner at Mark Gilbert Morse solicitors, said he sympathised with Mr Walton "enormously" but could not comment directly on his case.

"The basic point is; whether you get a large sum or a small sum as a claimant, the difference in work for the solicitor is marginal. Often there is a huge amount of work involved in getting nothing for the client," said Mr Morse.

"As a firm we have been in favour of a minimum payment to claimants."

Mr Morse pointed out that legal firms were not allowed to share fees with the client.

Miners who worked underground before 1954 are not eligible for compensation under this scheme.

Steve Kemp, national secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, said the "vast majority" of solicitors recommended by the NUM had dealt with claims in a professional way.