No win, no fee’ boss’s death inquest delayed
Friday, September 19th, 2008n inquest into the death of a Manchester boss whose 2,500 employees were sacked by text message has been adjourned to discover if his widow wants to attend the hearing.
West Manchester deputy coroner Alan Walsh said his office had experienced difficulty in contacting Mark Langford’s wife Deborah and he was “not satisfied” of her intentions to attend because of “fragmented information”, therefore had no choice but to postpone the inquest.
Mr Langford, the founder of The Accident Group (TAG), died when his rented Opal Corsa hit a crash barrier near Marbella, Spain, last year.
The injury claims specialist helped develop the “no win, no fee system” and was famous for its advertising slogan “where there’s blame, there’s a claim”.
Mr Langford, 42, was said to have amassed a personal wealth of £40m in the so-called compensation culture but the company and its parent group Amulet collapsed with debts of about £100m as its claims success rate dried up considerably.
Mr Walsh told the inquest sitting at Bolton Town Hall that his office had had no contact with Mrs Langford since shortly after her husband’s death in April 2007 when she provided a statement.
Correspondence was sent last month to her last-known address in the UK at her mansion in North Rode, near Congleton, Cheshire, and a house in Spain but no reply was received.
He finally called in the police who ascertained from neighbours she had since moved addresses in Spain and Mrs Langford was finally contacted on Wednesday.
Mrs Langford was said to have not known about the inquest and said she was not planning to return to Britain until September 16.
Mr Walsh adjourned the inquest and said: “I want to give Mrs Langford the opportunity to attend the inquest.”