Joanne Candlish

Practice Areas

Joanne, a Partner in the Industrial Disease Department and a leading and highly experienced mesothelioma and complex injury lawyer. During a career spanning over 31 years she has acted for numerous asbestos victims and their families. Joanne specialises in mesothelioma and asbestos related lung cancer claims and serious/complex personal injuries caused by road traffic and work place accidents.

She has taken the fight for justice for her clients to the highest courts in the land, see notable cases below. She is a highly experienced litigator and has always acted for personal injury victims and in particular people exposed to asbestos. Recent successful cases include securing a seven figure settlement for a living lung cancer victim, and a six figure settlement for the widow of an 80 year old mesothelioma victim.

Joanne recently secured a six figure settlement in a case in which she was instructed post death and the deceased’s family knew very little about the asbestos exposure suffered by the deceased. Joanne was able to identify witnesses and go on to obtain a number of supportive witness statements, and expert evidence leading to settlement with the defendant, a matter of weeks before the case was due to be heard at a 3 day Trial.

Joanne regularly obtains six figure settlements for her clients, particularly those who are suffering from mesothelioma. Her settlements include claims for novel and private medical treatment not available on the NHS as part of the settlement agreement.

In another of Joanne’s recent cases, she secured a settlement for her client of £283,500 in a multi-defendant claim, together with the option to activate a private medical treatment agreement in the future and nearly £10,000.00 for the local hospice who had provided symptom control and pain relief treatment to Joanne’s client.

Joanne works closely with local asbestos support charities, most notably the London Asbestos Support Awareness Group. Joanne has over many years campaigned for justice, taking to the streets in the North West and London to fight for the rights of those diagnosed with Mesothelioma and to push for the need for increased funds for research.

Campaigns include #Cape Must Pay! and Save Phoenix House.

Her clients have spoken of her empathy, dedication and determination to secure justice and compensation. She works closely with medical professionals, engineering experts, support groups and other charities to assist victims and their families and to raise awareness of the issues affecting asbestos victims.

Joanne’s expertise is recognised by those she works with and through independent accreditation by The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, of which she is an Asbestos and Occupational Disease specialist.

Career

Joanne started her legal career at a small High Street Legal Aid firm, as a trainee legal executive, in 1992. Joanne attended evening classes at the local college to pass the legal executive professional exams, which she completed in 1996. She then attended university evening classes to gain her law degree, whilst working full time as a qualified legal executive. She joined Thompsons in 2004 and was head of the North West Regional Asbestos Team, before moving to Hodge Jones & Allen as a Partner in 2021. She joined Leigh Day as a Partner in 2024.

Professional Memberships

APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers): Accredited Senior Litigator, Asbestos and Occupational Disease Specialist.

Work Highlights

THE EMPLOYERS LIABILITY INSURANCE “TIGGER” LITIGATION [2012] UKSC14

Joanne represented one of the lead families in the landmark Supreme Court case known as the Employers’ Liability Trigger Litigation, which ruled that employers’ liability insurance was ‘triggered’ at the time of exposure to asbestos and not development of the disease. This decision protected the right to compensation for thousands of mesothelioma victims and many more victims of asbestos.

SIR ROBERT LLOYD & CO LTD AND OTHERS V BERNARD HOEY (2011), EWCA CIV, 1060, 09/09/11

Joanne also represented a seriously ill asbestos victim to a unanimous victory in the Court of Appeal. The Defendants having appealed against His Honour Judge Gore’s decision that the case was not time barred.

R (ON THE APPLICATION OF THE COMMISSIONERS FOR HMRC) V HM CORONER FOR THE CITY OF LIVERPOOL AND OTHERS EWHC [2014] 1586 (ADMIN)

Joanne acted on behalf of the family of a deceased asbestos victim and worked alongside HM Coroner for Liverpool in the Judicial Review. The case challenged the HMRC’s policy decision not to disclose employment records to coroners and families in fatal disease cases. This successful challenge eventually led to the policy being over-turned.

TAYLOR V FASCIA FUTURE LTD [2018] EWHC 3049 (QB)

Preliminary issue trial on the facts in an Asbestos related lung cancer claim. It is the only reported case in which Keefe v The Isle of Man Steam Packet [2010] has been applied in an asbestos case.

Mr Taylor, a life-long non-smoker developed asbestos-related lung cancer at just 37 years old. It was alleged that this deadly disease was caused by exposure to large amounts of toxic asbestos throughout his career working for the Defendants from 1994 when he was just 16 years old to 2006 as a labourer in the roofing trade.

The Claimant’s case was that he removed asbestos soffits, fascias and guttering from residential properties in the Northampton area. He alleged that he encountered asbestos on the majority of jobs he undertook. He alleged that in order to remove the materials he would have to cut them with handsaws and sometimes with an angle grinder, he would then break the materials up on the ground and place them in a van for disposal. The materials would be taken to the tip, however, in the late 1990s the tip refused asbestos materials and the Claimant was instructed to take them to his employer’s mother in law’s garage. He alleged that he smashed up the asbestos materials in this garage.

The Defendant’s case was starkly different. It was alleged that only a very small percentage of the Claimant’s jobs involved asbestos and that these would typically involve asbestos cement guttering and sometimes soffits. It was said that the materials came off in one piece and would be placed in the van. It was flatly denied that asbestos materials were stored in the garage.

The judge was asked to accept that had the Claimant’s employer complied with the relevant regulatory regime at the time (The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 1987 SI 1987/2115, and 2002 SI 2002/2675) then, to put it at its lowest, the task of establishing the extent of his exposure would have been very much easier because there would have been relevant records. The Defendant argued that Keefe had no application as it was concerned with breach of duty, which had been admitted.

The judge largely accepted the Claimant’s evidence. It was found that the Claimant’s evidence was ‘consistent with a factual situation in which asbestos was encountered frequently, more often than not…I am satisfied that it would be fair to say, as a very general average, Mr Taylor encountered asbestos in as many as three quarters of the jobs he did.’ Further, it was accepted that the materials were broken up on removal and that they were disposed of in the garage and smashed up by the Claimant.

VC (AS WIDOW AND EXECUTRIX OF THE ESTATE OF DC, DECEASED) V (1) A RUTHERFORD & CO LTD (2) VSEL (BIRKENHEAD) LTD (2020)

The widow and estate of a deceased man received £300,000 after he died in March 2018, aged 80, of mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos during the course of his employment between the 1950s and 1970s. The main issue between the parties was whether, but for the illness, the deceased would have been able to continue caring for his disabled wife although he was elderly. This was one of the highest agreed awards of compensation for the condition at £100,350.00 (the top of the then JC Guidelines bracket)