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Receiving Just Compensation through an Asbestosis Cancer Lawsuit

By 1927, the term asbestosis entered the English medical vocabulary via a short announcement, carried by the British Medical Journal. Soon knowledge of asbestosis was not isolated to the medical arenas. In 1931, Theodore Dreiser’s book Tragic America cites asbestosis as an example of a worker’s health risk to which factory owners in New Jersey were completely indifferent.

So why is there so much argument today proving its dangers and receiving just compensation for an asbestosis cancer lawsuit?

Arguments over Asbestos Continue

Asbestos is a term fraught with dispute. Decades ago it was a widely used mineral in thousands of manufacturing processes, with glimpses of what dangers lay ahead. Today its use is highly constricted in the United States and Europe. Only chrysotile is used today and only in selected products.

When workers started developing disease years after exposure, numerous lawsuits resulted, eventually putting many companies out of business. When those individuals who were truly sick with asbestosis either died or were compensated, some attorneys sought out workers who might become ill from remote asbestos exposure, which generated tens of thousands of claims. Due to efforts like these, many trusts and funds have been depleted for those who really needed them.

Asbestosis Cancer Lawsuit Could be a Good Move

With no specific treatment for asbestosis, many victims feel an enormous amount of anger and betrayal towards their former employers. They, or a loved one, want to take action and fight for compensation. The key is to work with a reputable law firm—one who has your best interest at heart—one who has experience litigating personal injury cases—one like Seeger Weiss. Here’s some reasons why pursing an Asbestosis cancer lawsuit with Seeger Weiss could be a good move:

Identifying Responsible Party: Asbestosis has a long latency period of two decades or more from the time of first exposure before it manifests. Because many companies once in the asbestos business have merged or gone out of business, it is often difficult to identify the responsible parties years later. Getting help from a professional who can search the trail of liability can be beneficial.

Proof of Exposure: As a worker, you will need to prove asbestos exposure to friable asbestos in the workplace and in sufficient amount to have caused your condition. Many times co-worker affidavits are used to establish workplace exposure.

Alleviate Smoking Argument: Since many asbestos exposed workers also smoked, opposing attorneys may argue over which actually caused the asbestosis. We can help alleviate this argument.

Many physicians feel that one must demonstrate radiologic or histologic (on lung tissue) asbestosis to link asbestos exposure as a cause of lung cancer (the Browne Hypothesis). Understandably, other physicians disagree, and this point is often the subject of debate in lung cancer claims.

Even granted that a patient's lung cancer was due to both asbestos and smoking, different courts treat this information differently. Some may award maximum damages if asbestos was any percentage of the cause; others may only award compensation based on the percentage attributed to asbestos.

Standard Criteria: The American Thoracic Society formulated standard criteria for the diagnosis of asbestosis,which was published in the mid-1980s. However, many physicians feel it is too restrictive and will argue a more liberal diagnosis in court.

Presence or Absence of Pleural Plaques: Claims based only on the chest X-ray are common today. Sued companies may hire their own physicians or B-Readers to examine the claimants; these experts might disagree with physicians hired by plaintiff's attorneys. In particular, controversy arises over the presence or absence of pleural plaques and asbestosis.