Claims for compensation are made via Charles Russell, Solicitors, to the Trustees of the vCJD Main Trust. There are seven Trustees, who have been appointed by the Secretary of State from a wide range of relevant disciplines and experience.

The Honourable Mr Justice Owen (Chairman), High Court Judge
Mr David Churchill, Family Representative
Roger M. Tomkins, Family Representative
Mr John Melville Williams, QC
Ms Elaine Motion, Solicitor (Scotland)
Dr David Stevens, Consultant Neurologist
Mrs Vicky Vidler, Nurse Consultant (Paediatric Haematology)

The Honourable Mr Justice Owen, Chairman, High Court Judge Sir Robert Owen was called to the bar in 1968, and took silk in 1999. He was appointed a Recorder of the Crown Court in 1987, and sat as a Deputy High Court Judge from 1994 to 2000. In 2001 he was appointed a High Court Judge. In 1994/5 he was chairman of the London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association, and in 1997 served as Chairman of the General Council of the Bar of England and Wales. He is a married man with two sons.

David Churchill, Family Representative Dave Churchill's son Stephen, who died in May 1995, was the first ever recorded victim of vCJD. Dave was the founding chairman of the New Variant Families Association, which began with a meeting of the relatives of seven of the earliest victims of vCJD, in July 1996. The Families Association went on to become the Human BSE Foundation (HBSEF) in December 1997. He resigned from the chairmanship of the HBSEF in December 1999, at the end of the public hearings of the BSE Inquiry. As chairman of the HBSEF, Dave was instrumental in gaining the BSE Inquiry and later he was a member of the families' representatives who negotiated the original proposal that led to the Compensation Scheme and the vCJD Trust. Dave retired from his post as a senior fire brigade officer in 2000 and started a Fire & Safety consultancy and helps his wife, Dot, with her Bed & Breakfast business in Wiltshire. He chose not to take any other full time employment after retiring from the fire service so that he could devote the time needed for his vCJD Trust work. His "outside" interests are travel, especially to Spain, and generally the DIY and gardening needed to maintain the B&B. Dave was nominated as Trustee by the HBSEF and agreed to serve initially for four years until March 2006.

Roger M. Tomkins, Family Representative Roger was born in 1946 in the county of Kent, the younger of two sons and was educated at a Secondary Modern School in Kent, then served a six year Toolmaking apprenticeship where he achieved City & Guilds qualifications. He spent the next fifteen years as a designer for various companies in the Plastics Industry, and the last twelve years of his career were spent as Sales Director and finally Engineering Director in the Telecommunications Industry. Roger was married to his first wife Dawn in 1967 and they were blessed with two lovely daughters Lisa and Clare. Tragically, Roger lost his younger daughter Clare to vCJD in1998 having cared for her at home since she became ill in 1996. Roger then suffered a double tragedy when his first wife Dawn died only six weeks after Clare of Ovarian Cancer. At this point Roger decided to take early retirement when by chance he met Sarah in late 1998, who in 1997 had lost her husband Edward to Classical CJD. Together they attended the majority of the BSE Inquiry in London until its conclusion, and now both play an active role for the CJD Support Network. Roger was also involved at an early stage in the discussions with Irwin Mitchell Solicitors and the DOH in the lead up to the Compensation Scheme and Care Package. Roger and Sarah were married in October 2003 at which time Roger was on a course of Chemotherapy having been diagnosed with Bowel Cancer and had major surgery in April 2003. They live happily on the riverside in Horning where together they own and run their Marina, and enjoy boating all year round, as well as being involved with Local Charities and Church fund raising events. They also enjoy visiting their daughter Lisa, her husband Stuart and their two grandaughters Jemma and Kirsty who live in Kent. Roger hopes that with his personal and particular knowledge of most aspects of vCJD he will be in a good position to offer a balanced contribution to the important work of the vCJD Trust.

John Melville Williams, QC John Melville Williams is a barrister and QC. He retired from practice at the Bar at the end of 2003 but still works as a member of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeal Panel and as a Legal Assessor to the General Medical Council. He also maintains contact with developments in the world of legal practice and writes for The Journal of Personal Injury Law from time to time. His practice was mainly in the field of personal injury and medical negligence and he was particularly involved with industrial disease cases and claims arising from exposure to pesticides, similar substances and pharmaceutical drugs. In 1990 he was one of the founders and was the first president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, an organisation dedicated to improving standards in compensation for the injured. He was also one of the first joint chairmen of the International Section of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and has many friends in the US where he is a frequent visitor. His wife died in 1995 but his 4 children (all now grown up) and 3 grandchildren keep him very busy and are a constant delight.

Elaine Motion, Solicitor (Scotland) Elaine is Head of Litigation in Balfour & Manson solicitors, based in Edinburgh. She practises as a solicitor-advocate, qualifying as a solicitor in 1986, and is Head of the Litigation Department. Elaine is also qualified as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand and spent some years there with her husband enjoying the work and the country itself. She has acted for claimants in the personal injury field for nearly 20 years. This work covers many areas including accidents at work; occupational disease claims; road traffic accidents; organophosphate damage claims as well as clinical negligence work. It is that expertise that Elaine brings to the Trust to assist in the fair determination of each individual claim. Elaine is married with two young children and between family and work finds time to relax by gardening, cycling or skiing as well as socialising with understanding friends.

Dr David Stevens, Consultant Neurologist Before he retired, David Stevens was a consultant neurologist in Gloucestershire. He is married, with a grown up family and an increasing number of grand-children. Retirement from the hospital service means that he now has more time for writing and travelling and he thinks he is still fit enough to continue to have adventurous journeys to remote parts of the world. He is trying to do as much of that as he can whilst he is still able! He likes organising things - before he retired he was the Treasurer of the Association of British Neurologists and he was also involved in the organisation of the World Congress of Neurology, which was held in London in 2001. He still works part time giving advice on neurological matters to lawyers and insurance companies. When working as a junior doctor in the 1960s he was involved in the earliest experiments designed to find out the cause of conventional Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, so this illness has long been of great interest to him. He likes to think that the experience that he has had over the years of looking after many patients with this disease and with other debilitating illnesses has equipped him to help the patients and families afflicted by vCJD by working for the Trust.

Vicky Vidler, Nurse Consultant (Paediatric Haematology) Vicky is a Nurse Consultant at Sheffield Children's Hospital, caring for children with a variety of blood disorders. Many of her patients and their families have had to deal with the issue of blood borne pathogens. Vicky was nominated as a Trustee by the Royal College of Nursing. Vicky is married with three grown up children and whilst her job is demanding, satisfying and stimulating she places great value on enjoying leisure and relaxation time with family and friends.

The Trustees' role

The Trustees are an independent public body, which has been given the task of administering the fund. The Trustees are not part of the Government, employed by the Government or agents of the Government. On occasion they may contact the Department of Health and Irwin Mitchell in relation to general difficulties of interpretation of the Trust Deed, but it is the Trustees who have sole responsibility for making decisions and awarding compensation payments in all of the individual claims.

The terms of the Trust Deed were negotiated and established before the Trustees were appointed. The Trustees did not, therefore, have any input into the Scheme. The Trustees have succeeded in negotiating a number of amendments to the Scheme, which have increased the potential beneficiaries who can receive compensation and increased the amount of compensation paid.

Charles Russell, Solicitors, have been appointed as Secretariat and to advise the Trustees. They are very familiar with the Scheme, having acted for the Trustees since before the Trust Deed was signed in March 2002. Charles Russell's role, either by way of direct contact with victims and families or their Solicitors, is to prepare the claims for submission to the Trustees. This includes contacting family members to ascertain whether they qualify under the Scheme and wish to make a claim, obtaining representations from families as to how the compensation should be distributed between the family members, doing calculations and preparing a financial summary, and obtaining documentary evidence for claims (for example, invoices and receipts). Charles Russell try to make sure that complete information is made available to the Trustees so they can make decisions without delay whilst further information is obtained.

Claims are then sent to the Trustees for consideration in advance of the next Trustees' meeting. The volume of paperwork sent to the Trustees is considerable - often amounting to 4-5 large lever arch files each.
At the meeting, the Trustees consider the claims and make decisions as to the amount of compensation that should be paid and to whom. Charles Russell, Solicitors, are present at the meeting and may provide advice on the interpretation of the Trust Deed, scope of the Scheme, or provide more up to date information. The Trustees have sole responsibility for making the decisions relating to the claims.

Charles Russell try to make sure that complete information is available so the Trustees can make decisions without postponement.