Fideicomisos de asbesto • Reclamaciones de asbesto

Reclamaciones de fideicomiso de asbesto: la compensación está disponible sin presentar una demanda

It was front-page news all over the world in 1982 when Johns-Manville filed for bankruptcy. The Johns-Manville bankruptcy was the largest bankruptcy in history at approximately $2 billion dollars.

Johns-Manville had no choice but to file for bankruptcy because its terrible secret had finally been revealed: Johns-Manville knew as early as the 1930’s that their products were killing people, but it chose to hide the dangers of asbestos in order to keep making money.

Finally, due to asbestos lawsuits, the truth came out and when juries saw the damning evidence they punished the company time and time again with large damage awards.  Filing for bankruptcy protected the company from asbestos lawsuits, but required the company to set money aside to compensate those who would develop asbestos-related illnesses in the future.

Johns-Manville set the money aside into a special trust fund that is managed by trustees appointed by a Federal court judge.  The trust is still operating today and pays thousands of people each year who were diagnosed with an asbestos-related illness after working with Johns-Manville products.

Nuestro bufete de abogados presenta reclamos ante estos fideicomisos en nombre de nuestros clientes casi todos los días, y también agradeceríamos la oportunidad de presentar reclamos en su nombre.

What are asbestos bankruptcy trusts?

When an asbestos company files for bankruptcy, it immediately gets protected from asbestos lawsuits.  This protection is called a “stay” and it prohibits asbestos lawyers from filing any further lawsuits against the company. 

• As part of the bankruptcy process, the asbestos company is forced to present their financial information and all of their liability insurance information to a Federal bankruptcy judge.

El juez trabaja con varios expertos contables y actuariales para determinar cuánto dinero pueden colocar la compañía y sus aseguradoras en un fondo especial para compensar a las víctimas del asbesto. 

• La cantidad de dinero reservada depende de cuánto dinero tenga la compañía de asbesto y cuánto seguro tenga la compañía contra demandas.

Algunos bankruptcy trusts are established with only a few million dollars.  Several others were funded with billions of dollars.  There are currently about 50 active trusts and they were funded with about $30 billion dollars in total.

When a trust is created, the funds are placed under the control of a group of court-appointed trustees and the funds are invested in a variety of “safe” investments, such as mutual funds and bonds.  The trustees also select a third-party claims processing company to handle every aspect of the claims process. 

Por ejemplo, el fideicomiso Johns-Manville es administrado por una empresa de procesamiento de reclamos llamada Claims Resolution Management Corporation, o CRMC. Nuestra oficina presenta reclamos ante CRMC en nombre de nuestros clientes.

• The guidelines for filing claims are approved by the Federal court judge who oversees the bankruptcy and the trust.

Our claims processors know these guidelines extremely well because (unlike some other law firms) our claims processors only file asbestos claims and don’t also do other paralegal work.

¿Quién es elegible para un acuerdo de asbestos de un fideicomiso?

Every trust has different eligibility requirements in order for an individual to qualify for a payment from the trust.  However, each trust has three broad requirements a person must prove to qualify for an asbestos settlement.

• Prueba de una enfermedad relacionada con el asbesto.

Most trusts will pay individuals who developed one of the following asbestos-related cancers: Mesothelioma, lung cancer, throat cancer, stomach cancer, and colon cancer.  Some trusts will also pay individuals who developed asbestosis or pleural plaques, which are caused by asbestos exposure but are not cancers. 

El simple hecho de que se le diagnostique una de las enfermedades anteriores no es suficiente para calificar para el pago.  The trusts typically require specialized evidence from asbestos medical experts.  Our office works with asbestos medical experts from all across the country, and we advance all of the costs of doing so; our clients never have any out-of-pocket costs associated with their claims.

• Exposición al asbesto durante un período de tiempo específico.

Most asbestos trusts require a person to have been exposed to asbestos before December 31st of 1982.  If a person’s first exposure to asbestos occurred after that date, the person will often not be eligible for asbestos trust claims but is often eligible for other types of compensation.

• Una cantidad significativa de exposición al asbestos, preferiblemente en el lugar de trabajo.

Asbestos has what is known as a dose-response relationship to the human respiratory system.  The higher the dose of asbestos, the more likely a person is to have a negative response. 

One of the challenges in getting an asbestos trust claim approved is proving that a person had an exposure that was significant enough to cause their illness.  After all, many diseases caused by asbestos (such as lung cancer) can occur in someone who was never exposed to asbestos. 

Asbestos trust claims can be filed by the person injured by asbestos, and also by the families of individuals who died because of their exposure to asbestos.  We have filed trust claims on behalf of many families who contacted us after a loved one passed away from an asbestos-related illness.

¿Cuánto dinero paga un reclamo de fideicomiso de asbesto?

Se salieron con la suya, porque las enfermedades relacionadas con el asbesto puede tardar décadas en aparecer. Pero cuando cientos de miles de personas comenzaron a enfermarse, la industria del asbesto finalmente quedó atrapada.

No hay dos fideicomisos que paguen la misma cantidad en dólares, pero cada fideicomiso tiene un marco flexible que utilizan para determinar cuánto se pagará un reclamo.

During the asbestos bankruptcy process, the Federal judge determines what the average amount the company has had to pay in the past to settle lawsuits over a specific illness. 

Creamos la siguiente tabla con base en el fideicomiso de asbesto de Johns-Manville. 

The “Scheduled Value” is the average amount Johns-Manville had paid prior to filing bankruptcy. For example, the “Scheduled Value” for Mesothelioma is $350,000, meaning that prior to filing bankruptcy, Johns-Manville paid $350,000 on average to settle a mesothelioma claim.

En un mundo perfecto, Johns-Manville tendría suficiente dinero para pagar $ 350,000 a cada persona que desarrolle mesotelioma después de trabajar con sus productos. 

But the reality is that Johns-Manville and its insurers were only able to fund the trust with about $2 billion dollars.  So the Federal judge in charge of this trust worked with actuaries and accountants to determine what percentage of $350,000 that the trust can afford to pay individuals diagnosed with mesothelioma.  A partir de 2021, ese porcentaje es 5.10% por ciento, lo que significa que una persona que califique para un pago de liquidación de mesotelioma del fideicomiso Johns-Manville recibirá $ 17,850 dólares.

La gran mayoría de nuestros clientes califican para pagos de más de un fideicomiso de asbesto. 

Remember, there are about 50 active asbestos trusts, and it’s not uncommon for our clients to qualify for payments from ten or more trusts.

One of the advantages of hiring our law firm is that we have an expert asbestos claims department that is staffed with a number of former employees of the companies that administer the asbestos trusts.  Our team thoroughly investigates the exposure history of every one of our clients in order to maximize the number and amounts of asbestos trust settlements our clients receive.

Los reclamos de fideicomisos de asbesto son solo una de las muchas fuentes de compensación disponibles para las personas que desarrollan una enfermedad relacionada con el asbesto.

Most of our clients who choose to file an asbestos lawsuit also qualify for payments from the asbestos trusts; clients don’t have to choose one option or the other.

Nuestro bufete de abogados trabaja con nuestros clientes para determinar primero qué opciones están disponibles para un cliente y luego qué opciones desea seguir el cliente.

We have a number of clients who we believe would prevail in an asbestos lawsuit but who chose not to file a lawsuit because they don’t want to go to court. We don’t force our clients into taking any actions they don’t want to, ever.

Asbestos Trust Claims Are Not Lawsuits and Do Not Affect a Person’s Employer or Benefits

Many of our clients are hesitant to seek compensation for their asbestos injuries because they don’t want to sue their employers. In the clip below, you’ll see two of our clients discuss why they didn’t want to file a lawsuit against Huntsman Chemical. We respected our clients’ wishes, and as they explain, their trust claims did not in any way affect Huntsman Chemical.

Los reclamos de fideicomisos de asbesto no son juicios y son completamente confidenciales, por lo que ningún empleador se enteraría de los reclamos presentados por sus empleados a menos que su empleado decida informarles. 

Similarly, asbestos trust claims do not affect a person’s retirement benefits, VA benefits, or Social Security benefits. 

We understand that many people live off of their benefits and are thus extremely afraid to do anything to put those benefits at risk. If you’d like to ask questions about whether trust claims could affect your benefits, please contact us today and we’ll discuss your situation with you.

Los fumadores de cigarrillos son absolutamente elegibles para presentar reclamos de fideicomiso de asbesto

Nuestra oficina ha recuperado muchos acuerdos fiduciarios en nombre de los fumadores.

Uno de los casos más trágicos que manejó Justinian fue el de un cliente que comenzó a fumar a la edad de 4 años.

Unfortunately, her mother and grandmother thought it was “cute” to see a little girl smoking.

Cuando nuestra clienta era una adolescente, fumaba un paquete al día y, cuando comenzó a trabajar con asbesto, fumaba cerca de dos paquetes al día. 

Esta mujer desarrolló cáncer de pulmón a mediados de los cincuenta.

Sin duda, su tabaquismo contribuyó a su cáncer de pulmón, pero ninguna empresa de asbesto le dijo que los fumadores tienen 5 veces más probabilidades de morir de cáncer de pulmón que los no fumadores, pero los fumadores que trabajan con asbesto tienen 28 veces más probabilidades de morir de cáncer de pulmón que una persona ni fumaba ni trabajaba con asbestos. 

Justinian pudo obtener una compensación para ella y su familia sobreviviente cuando falleció de cáncer de pulmón.

Justinian significa Justicia

We have a dedicated team of legal professionals who are very good at maximizing our clients’ recoveries from the various asbestos trusts.

In addition to having former employees of the asbestos trusts to submit claims, we also maintain a massive database of evidence that we use to prove a person’s eligibility for asbestos trust claims.

Nos enorgullecemos de nuestra capacidad para obtener una compensación para nuestros clientes de los fideicomisos de asbesto y agradeceríamos la oportunidad de presentar reclamaciones en su nombre ante los fideicomisos de asbesto.

If you have any questions about filing asbestos trust claims, contact our office today for a free consultation.  We offer consultations over the phone, in-person in your home or our office, and with any modern video-chat software such as Zoom or Facetime. 

There’s no obligation to hire us, and we won’t put any pressure on you to do so, either. We’re here to help you, not harass you.

Sus derechos pueden perderse si espera.

Aunque los reclamos de fideicomisos de asbesto no son juicios, están sujetos a las mismas limitaciones de tiempo que los juicios. 

Estas leyes se denominan estatutos de limitación.

Los estatutos de limitación especifican cuánto tiempo tiene una persona para presentar una demanda. 

• Si una persona espera demasiado, pierde el derecho a presentar una demanda.
• Exactamente lo mismo se aplica a los fideicomisos de asbesto:

If you wait too long to file an asbestos trust claim, you’ll lose the right to do so. Statutes of Limitation can be complicated in asbestos cases because a person typically doesn’t develop an asbestos-related illness until many years after he or she was exposed.

Si cree que tiene derecho a una compensación por su enfermedad relacionada con el asbesto, llame, envíe un mensaje de texto o envíe un correo electrónico a nuestro bufete de abogados para que podamos decirle cuánto tiempo tiene para tomar la decisión de presentar un reclamo de fideicomiso o buscar una compensación por asbesto a través de una demanda por asbesto.

No le costará nada llamarnos, pero podría costarle todo si espera demasiado para presentar un reclamo.