Subscribe to Search results

Kate Lee, a solicitor acting for the central defendants, reported that counsel had considered the possibility of sending a letter informing the plaintiffs that if they discontinued against the defendants the Government would forgo its own costs. It was suggested that, viewed with the additional money being made available to the Macfarlane Trust, this "may be seen as a sympathetic gesture."

Published on:

A memo from Richard Gutowski to Kate Lee, regarding HIV litigation, expressed unease about writing to plaintiffs informing them that the Government would forgo its own costs if they discontinued against the defendants. It was felt this could be construed as overly aggressive.

Published on:

A memo from Charles Dobson to Clive Wilson expressed his view that an open letter warning the plaintiffs about costs of proceedings could be too easily misinterpreted.

Published on:

A memo from Donald Acheson to Virginia Bottomley and Kenneth Clarke urged the Government to make an ex-gratia settlement to people with haemophilia infected in relation to the HIV litigation.

Published on:

A memo from Strachan Heppell to the CMO, the Minister of State for Health and the Secretary of State set out the options for responding to the litigation.

Published on:

A note to ministers on the haemophilia AIDS Litigation invited Ministers to review the government's position in light of: (i) Mr Justice Ognall's statement to consider an out-of-court settlement; (ii) advice from Counsel; and (iii) the Regional Directors of Public Health submission.

Published on:

Kenneth Clarke was in favour of sticking to the Government's legal defence and continuing to fight the litigation. He did not deem it necessary at that stage to send a memo to the Prime Minister.

Published on:

Kenneth Clarke sought to discuss the issues of settlement with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Published on:

A memo from Stephen Bowden to Andrew Edwards outlined a phone call between the Chief Secretary and the Secretary of State for Health. They had agreed that there were no grounds for offering an out-of-court settlement in relation to people with haemophilia with HIV.

Published on:

The plaintiffs' lawyers wrote to the central defendants in response to Mr Justice Ognall's observations and proposed that consideration be given to a settlement.

Published on:

A Department of Health summary of the campaign for the settlement was provided in a briefing to the next Secretary of State.

Published on:

At a meeting between counsel for the central defendants and lead counsel for the plaintiffs, the Government lawyers indicated that they could not initiate a compromise but were prepared to listen.

Published on:

The steering committee of the plaintiffs met and a further meeting between counsel for the parties was arranged.

Published on:

The figures in the proposed scheme of compromise were to cover all the people with haemophilia registered with the Macfarlane Trusts as well as all the plaintiffs.

Published on:

William Waldegrave and David Mellor wrote to the Prime Minister regarding the proposed settlement. They attached particular importance to a number of points, including "recipients of the new money would have to undertake to drop the existing cases and forswear bringing any future cases on the matter".

Published on:

Civil servants told the Prime Minister John Major there were significant risks attached to settlement on the basis proposed, but the Health Secretary, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Social Security Secretary, and counsel all thought that those were outweighed by the advantages.

Published on:

The Prime Minister John Major agreed to the settlement proposals.

Published on:

William Waldegrave wished to make the announcement regarding settlement, whether or not the steering committee of lawyers representing the plaintiffs had agreed to the proposals. This caused tension with the Treasury.

Published on:

The solicitor who was chairman of the Scottish Haemophilia/HIV Litigation Group wrote to the Secretary of State for Scotland, Ian Lang: "Not only were the Scottish lawyers excluded from the discussions with the Government, they were not even advised that these discussions were taking place."

Published on:

William Waldegrave provided a written answer to a question regarding the settlement of the litigation.

Published on: