Drive-By Asbestos Exposure

Most asbestos exposure victims are occupational exposure victims. At work, they handled asbestos-laced products and/or worked in asbestos-laced facilities. About a fifth of these victims are take-home asbestos victims. Typically, these victims lived with asbestos workers. Before 1980, these take-home victims handled most household chores, like the laundry. In doing so, they were directly exposed to stray asbestos fibers that the worker unintentionally carried home.

Mesothelioma and other treatments are so expensive, and these diagnoses are so devastating, that these victims need and deserve substantial compensation. Take-home asbestos poisoning is still an emerging area, scientifically and legally. Therefore, some options are unavailable. However, an asbestos exposure lawyer can still obtain substantial compensation for these take-home victims. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Additional punitive damages are usually available in these cases as well.

Connecting asbestos exposure to a specific source is often one of the hardest elements of an asbestos exposure case to prove. Frequently, drive-by victims lived near multiple potential sources, like a shipbuilding yard and an auto parts manufacturing facility. Both kinds of businesses extensively used asbestos back in the day.

A Social Security Disability claim avoids this problem. These claimants must prove they have a disabling illness or injury. They need not establish the source of that injury or illness.

Most asbestos exposure illnesses, like mesothelioma, are completely disabling, under the SSA’s complex definition. Usually, such illnesses will last at least a year or, more often than not, are fatal. Second, lung cancer and other such illnesses are so severe that most victims cannot work in their current positions and cannot work anywhere else.

To bolster the illness claim, an asbestos exposure lawyer often partners with a doctor who performs an independent medical examination. Such a partnership usually ensures maximum compensation for both lost wages and medical expenses.

If the responsible provider declared bankruptcy and contributed to a VCF, which is often the case, non-occupational exposure victims can usually file such claims.

Procedurally, a VCF claim is much like an SSD claim. VCF claimants must connect their illness to an exposure source. But there’s no lawyer on the other side to contest the victim’s evidence. Therefore, a bare-bones case is usually sufficient.

Frequently, these claims are easy to start but hard to resolve. Most VCF fund administrators are notorious stingy negotiators.

The doors to the courthouse are open to all exposure victims, regardless of their background. Usually, these victims file failure-to-warn claims.

Most companies have a duty of care to warn people about all known adverse side effects. Before around 1990, few asbestos providers bothered to warn people about exposure risks. They knew such warnings would lead to an asbestos ban and rob them of a cheap insulating substance, which is what eventually happened.

Before 1990, federal courts gave compensation to asbestos exposure victims like toys on Christmas Day. Now, however, federal judges closely scrutinize these claims. Only the strongest, evidence-based claims survive the rigorous pretrial process.

If a claim survives such scrutiny, it will probably settle out of court. Asbestos company lawyers know that, for the most part, they have little or no chance of winning a trial. Therefore, during settlement negotiations, an asbestos exposure lawyer holds practically all the cards.

Mesothelioma victims need and deserve significant compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced nationwide mesothelioma lawyer, contact the Throneberry Law Group. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you.