ASBESTOS widow Jane Maitland has criticised the changes ministers want to bring in for civil compensation cases.
Mrs Maitland's husband William died aged 63 after a painful, year-long battle against mesothelioma, a cancer caused by breathing in deadly asbestos dust.
He had worked as a joiner on a number of Clyde shipyards for 30 years from the 1950s to 1980s.
Mrs Maitland, 74, of Gourock, Inverclyde, said her husband should be alive today enjoying his retirement.
She said: "What these changes would do is diminish the importance of asbestos cases."
Mrs Maitland, a retired nursing lecturer who has a grown up daughter, won a three-year legal battle which she began following her husband's death in November 1998.
The reason she was able to take her claim was that she was entitled to be represented by an advocate - whose fee was paid by the other party when she settled out of court.
She said: "It was a stressful experience but it was made easier by knowing I had the very best lawyer and that I would not have to pay his fee whatever the outcome.
"If these reforms go through people may end up not only with poorer legal representation, they may also end up having to pay for a lawyer out of any damages.
"I took the case because I wanted justice for what had happened to my husband. I felt that if you do wrong in life you should have to pay."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article