Mesothelioma Lawsuits and Your Right to Compensation

If you or a family member were diagnosed with mesothelioma or asbestos lung cancer, you have important legal rights to compensation. Your legal rights have deadlines, so do not delay seeking legal advice. With the help of an attorney experienced in mesothelioma and asbestos cancer lawsuits, you can make a civil claim against the manufacturer or employer who exposed you to asbestos.

A mesothelioma attorney can help you file a lawsuit or asbestos trust claim to obtain significant compensation for you and your family. If you were diagnosed with mesothelioma or asbestos lung cancer, you should be able to get reimbursed for your physical, emotional, and economic losses, including

  • Pain and suffering
  • Past medical expenses and bills
  • Future medical care and treatments
  • Lost salary and wages
  • Loss of earning capacity
  • Emotional distress, fear, and anxiety
  • Loss of consortium and companionship
  • Punitive damages
  • And more…

Asbestos was a common material used in buildings, construction areas, mechanical systems, utilities, manufacturing plants, shipyards, schools, and other commercial facilities. Due to this historical and ongoing exposure, workers and their families continue dealing with mesothelioma and its deadly consequences decades after asbestos exposure.

By filing a mesothelioma lawsuit or asbestos trust claim, you may find some peace and justice and even help bring awareness to the dangers of asbestos. But most importantly, you will help provide for your family.

Finding a place to turn for support and accurate legal advice should not cause additional stress. But the TV and Internet are full of ads and websites offering abundant and sometimes conflicting advice for those diagnosed with mesothelioma.

A mesothelioma diagnosis is not just a medical diagnosis but a legal one. The science linking asbestos exposure to mesothelioma is strong, as is your legal right to seek compensation for your exposure. But as with all legal rights, deadlines exist, and you must act quickly to preserve your rights.

Understanding Your Rights in Mesothelioma Lawsuits

Mesothelioma is a deadly form of malignant lung cancer, almost always caused by inhaling asbestos fibers. It is a fairly rare disease, with about 3,500 claims filed yearly in the United States.

Over half a million people have filed an asbestos exposure lawsuit or trust claim, with total recoveries estimated to exceed $300 billion.

Asbestos exposure before mesothelioma diagnosis

A mesothelioma or asbestos lung cancer diagnosis typically occurs 20 to 40 years after asbestos exposure. So, it is only many, many years after exposure that mesothelioma symptoms show up.

The delay between asbestos exposure and a mesothelioma diagnosis makes the science behind determining the amount of asbestos still in the workplace and the number of future claims difficult and uncertain. Doctors and scientists routinely disagree on the number of future mesothelioma cases we will see in the coming years.

This long delay between asbestos exposure and the medical diagnosis causes several challenges in bringing a successful mesothelioma lawsuit or asbestos trust claim.

Determining where and when someone was exposed to asbestos fibers is critically important. The attorney must reconstruct a complete work history for their client to find all possible asbestos exposures and the companies responsible. As many of these responsible companies may have since gone out of business or declared bankruptcy, it is critical to identify all potential asbestos exposure sites.

Filing a mesothelioma lawsuit or asbestos claim can provide significant compensation to cover your medical expenses, recoup your lost wages, and provide for your family. While nothing can reverse the disease or undue the decades of harm caused by corporate wrongdoing, taking care of your family’s future can provide peace of mind.

How to prepare for a mesothelioma lawsuit or asbestos trust claim

If you are considering a mesothelioma lawsuit or asbestos trust claim, you will need to provide an attorney with certain information and documentation about your mesothelioma exposure, like employment and medical records.

One crucial factor to consider would be the risk of exposure you had in your previous or current jobs. You should create a list of the names and locations of all employers you have had over the last thirty to forty years.

Your attorney will need this list to determine where you were most likely exposed to asbestos and identify the employers, products, and manufacturers involved in your exposure. This list will help you and your attorney determine the appropriate companies and products to specify in any legal claim and will help the attorney find potential asbestos trusts where you are eligible to file a compensation claim.

After writing out your employment history, review the list, think about it, and make notes on what you did on each job site. This list and notes will likely trigger important memories about the sources of asbestos exposure.

Once you have created a list of past employers, an experienced attorney can take over. The attorney will still need to do a lot of research to link the product or the job site you worked on to your asbestos exposure and diagnosis. An experienced mesothelioma attorney can help you collect the necessary information and documents to file your claim.

This work must be done before any mesothelioma lawsuit or compensation trust claim is filed. Your work in detailing your job history and possible asbestos exposure is not just to help the lawyer but is crucial in identifying all possible compensation trusts you may claim against or companies you may need to sue. Because many large companies that regularly used asbestos have gone out of business or declared bankruptcy, it is vital to identify all possible exposure sites.

Putting in the work upfront also helps to speed up the entire compensation claim process. Mesothelioma lawsuits and asbestos trust claims can be very complex legal claims. Mesothelioma claims can involve many different parties (including bankrupt and defunct companies), asbestos exposure and product use that occurred decades ago, difficulty finding old employment records, inconsistent memories and timelines of events, and more. These complexities can easily lead to delays in pursuing justice for those harmed by asbestos.

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How to find the right mesothelioma attorney for you

To get the maximum compensation for your mesothelioma claim in the shortest time possible, you should look for a lawyer capable of handling your claim and, most importantly, has the time necessary to dedicate to your case. The more individual attention your asbestos case gets, the more likely you will get a successful and quicker resolution.

An attorney with knowledge of asbestos trust funds and the entire compensation claim process can significantly increase your chances of filing a successful mesothelioma lawsuit or asbestos lung cancer claim.

So how do you find the right mesothelioma lawyer in a sea of television, social media ads, and internet websites? We have listed some tips below to help you in your search.

You want to find a lawyer with prior experience handling mesothelioma lawsuits who will provide unbiased advice about whether you have a claim and how to best pursue that claim. And a lawyer who can explain your legal rights to you in plain English.

7 tips for finding the right mesothelioma attorney to maximize your recovery

Quick tips on how to find the right attorney to talk to about a mesothelioma lawsuit or asbestos trust claim

  1. Search the web for “mesothelioma lawsuit” or “mesothelioma attorney” and review some of the websites in the search results.
  2. Skip the ads. There is no screening or vetting for those who advertise. Any attorney can buy an ad in the top search result spots.
  3. Avoid sites where you can’t tell who the lawyer or law firm is. There are many internet sites run by non-lawyer marketing companies that will sell your contact information.
  4. Avoid sites that offer medical advice. You are looking for a lawyer, not a doctor.
  5. Look for a free case and medical record review by a lawyer. Fill out their website form or call the 800 number. Avoid online chats if possible.
  6. Contact one lawyer at a time (you’ll thank us for this tip… it’s like contacting car dealers). Most lawyers should respond within 24 hours.
  7. Did you like the lawyer (or their legal assistant)? Did they listen to you, answer your questions, and provide a plan for moving forward?

Finding the right legal representation for you and your family takes work. Far too many people settle for the first lawyer contacted.

Your legal rights are valuable, and getting the maximum compensation as soon as possible for your family should be one of your highest priorities. The right lawyer can help you achieve those goals and help you plan for the future.

There are plenty of decent lawyers, but finding the right one who is honest, hard-working, and readily available will help provide the peace of mind you deserve and financial security for your family.

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