Can Someone Sue for Secondhand Asbestos Exposure?

If you are diagnosed with a severe asbestos-related disease like lung cancer or mesothelioma, and were exposed to asbestos, you likely have an asbestos claim.

Suing a responsible party or parties is often the legal road to reach the highest possible level of compensation.

Other legal roads to receive compensation for an asbestos claim:

Veterans Administration disability

Occupational Compensation (e.g., longshoremen, train workers).

Workers compensation – NOTE: If you file for workers compensation for an asbestos-related injury, you may be barred from filing an asbestos lawsuit.

The fastest way to receive compensation for an asbestos claim is often an asbestos trust. Asbestos trust claims have other advantages:

Lower risk

• Even when a person was clearly injured by someone else, in a lawsuit there is always a risk of a jury making a decision that no one expects. That risk is inherent to lawsuits.
• On the other hand, there is virtually no risk by a client who files an asbestos trust claim with an asbestos trust attorney working on contingency. 

• The attorney risks the funds to research and apply for compensation, and if there no compensation is received, the attorney must accept the loss.

Less Negotiation

• Asbestos Trusts are funds of money that can only be used to compensate people injured by asbestos.

• Asbestos Trustees generally pay fairly fixed amounts based on the level of health damage a person is suffering. So there is generally less challenge to receive money from a compensation trust, than from a company or person being sued.

• There are still $30 Billion in Asbestos Compensation Trusts

Second-hand asbestos exposure has many names. But by any name:

Second-hand asbestos exposure is asbestos exposure.

Legal asbestos claims and second-hand exposure

Ambient (secondhand) exposure cases are much more complex than non-ambient (direct) exposure cases, mostly because they’re harder to prove. But this proof requirement usually isn’t a barrier to compensation. In fact, some secondhand exposure victims only need bare-bones cases to obtain maximum compensation. More on that below as well.

The combination of serious illness and legal complexity requires a highly-experienced asbestos exposure lawyer. Attorneys who have been around awhile have professional networks that include top-notch environmental oncologists and other such professionals. Usually, these doctors charge nothing upfront for their diagnosis, treatment, and other services. Then, an attorney evaluates the legal aspects of your case, sorts through different options, and puts you on the path toward maximum compensation.

Asbestos Health Hazards

The ancient Egyptians knew a little about the health hazards of asbestos. Asbestos miners often had trouble breathing. By 1899, or the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the health hazards were well known. These hazards include:

• Asbestosis: Builders use asbestos because it doesn’t burn. However, these fibers burn breathing passageways in the lungs. The resulting scar tissue constricts these passageways, causing severe breathing problems, even if the victim is at rest. By the time doctors identify this illness, it’s usually so advanced that a risky total lung transplant is the only effective treatment option.

• Mesothelioma: A single microscopic asbestos fiber could cause this rare and aggressive form of heart/lung cancer. A tumor forms in the delicate meso lining between the heart and lungs. Because of the tumor’s location and the cancer’s aggressive nature, standard treatments usually do little good. 

Making matters worse, mesothelioma and asbestosis each have about a seventy-year latency period. Therefore, by the time doctors diagnose these conditions, the victim already has an advanced asbestos exposure illness.

Workers’ Compensation

Secondhand asbestos is a bit like secondhand smoke. Even in no-smoking workplaces, secondhand tobacco smoke exposure is almost inevitable. Usually, offices have designated smoking areas. Additionally, tobacco smoke clings to clothes and hair, opening the door to such exposure. Secondhand smoke elevates the risk of lung cancer, killing thousands of Americans every year.

Similarly, asbestos fibers cling to protective clothing and float in the air. If Mike’s construction john takes him to buildings that have asbestos, there’s a good chance he’ll be exposed to a fiber, especially if he has any contact with asbestos workers.

Usually, workers’ compensation replaces lost wages and pays medical expenses. Job injury victims don’t have to prove negligence or fault to obtain these benefits. Therefore, workers’ compensation insurance company lawyers normally cannot contest liability. But they can, and often do, contest the amount of benefits paid.

Lost wage replacement usually hinges on the victim’s AWW (average weekly wage). Prior cash wages alone don’t determine the AWW. Many people receive non cash wages, like per diem or loan reimbursement. Additionally, if Mary is disabled and cannot work, she’ll miss out on future promotions and other income increases. The AWW must reflect these things.

Most insurance companies use boilerplate tables to determine medical expenses. For example, asbestosis is a “lung disease” which, according to a table, often requires some medication and breathing treatments. But these treatments usually don’t work in asbestosis cases. So, a lawyer must ensure that these victims get the treatment they need, and not just the treatment an adjuster is willing to authorize.

Property Owner Negligence

These claims are available in non-work exposure matters. Typically, property owners have a legal responsibility to make their dwellings and buildings reasonably safe. If they know, or should know, about possible asbestos exposure, they must eradicate the problem or take care of it in a similar way.

Additional compensation is available in property owner negligence claims. These victims are also entitled to money for emotional distress and other noneconomic losses.

However, to obtain any compensation, an Austin asbestos exposure lawyer must prove negligence, or a lack of care, by a preponderance of the evidence, or more likely than not. Since the burden of proof is low, most lawyers can establish prima facie (repliminary) damage claims.

Then, it’s the insurance company’s turn. Assumption of the risk is one of the most common defenses in these asbestos exposure claims. Property owners aren’t legally responsible for damages if the victim voluntarily assumed a known risk. Arguably, if the structure was built before 1980, the victim should have known about possible asbestos contamination and should have taken steps to avoid it.

Asbestos Trusts: Money without filing a lawsuit

Victim Compensation Fund

Before many asbestos companies declared bankruptcy in the 1980s, a federal judge ordered them to set up large victim compensation funds. Even all these years later, these funds still contain billions of dollars.

Procedurally, these claims are like uncontested property owner negligence claims. If a victim establishes the basic elements of an exposure claim, the VCF must compensate the victim.

Here’s the tricky bit. VCF fund administrators are usually stingy. There’s no court supervision and no looming trial date to motivate them to settle a case. Therefore, VCF negotiations are often long and difficult, unless the victim is willing to settle for less.