Asbestos Law Suit

According to studies by national watchdog organizations, up to 10,000 people die every year due to illnesses caused by exposure to asbestos and related diseases.  While most of these cases are due to early exposure to asbestos, before 1970, when its use was regulated by the Clean Air Act, more than 1.3 million people are still exposed to asbestos on a regular basis, in the construction and maintenance industries.  For these people and their families, an asbestos law suit helps compensate for damages, though no amount of money can provide adequate compensation for disease, pain and suffering and even death due to asbestos exposure.

If you believe that you have been exposed to asbestos in your home or your workplace and you intend to join an ongoing asbestos law suit, it is essential you allow the EPA to inspect the home or workplace where the presence of asbestos is suspected.  A baseline inspection conducted by the agency can determine the presence of asbestos, as well as what type of asbestos exposure occurred.  OSHA should also be involved in the inspection and examination process.  However, even if you or a loved one were exposed to asbestos years prior to the appearance of symptoms, a doctor's diagnosis of symptoms "congruent with exposure to asbestos" is often enough to initiate one of these lawsuits.

In fact, it was the first asbestos law suit that prompted manufacturers and other companies to discontinue the material's use in most applications.  The very first suit was filed back in 1929 and the litigation has continued down the decades to the present day.  Litigation (lawsuits) against companies using asbestos and knowingly or unknowingly hiding the information from workers, their families and the federal and state governments has been the key reason for asbestos' discontinuation and the appearance of alternative materials.

The effect of the humble asbestos law suit was so great that by the early 90's, most of the asbestos manufacturers in the US had filed bankruptcy, in order to protect the company from its creditors and attempt to stave off corporate failure.  Currently, there are more than 600,000 people in the US involved in an asbestos law suit, against more than 6,000 different defendants.  However, the number of people involved in these suits is expected to increase, because asbestos exposure can have a very long dormancy period prior to symptoms beginning to develop.