Navigating Your Legal Rights After an Asbestos-Related Cancer Diagnosis
Receiving a cancer diagnosis after being exposed to asbestos earlier in life can feel like getting the rug pulled out from under our feet. What’s worse, the prospect of receiving the necessary care to treat cancer is virtually impossible for anyone who isn’t among the wealthy percentage of Americans. With the high cost of medical treatment and the need to treat asbestos cancer symtpoms as quickly as possible, it is vital to know what your legal rights are. Here’s how to navigate your legal rights for a cancer diagnosis caused by asbestos exposure.
The Problem of Soaring Medical Costs
Asbestos-related cancers are not entirely different from cancers caused by factors other than asbestos exposure, at least from a treatment perspective. This means that the typical cancer treatment protocol will cost at least the same as what someone never exposed to asbestos would expect. However, due to the cutting edge treatment methods being used today and the experimental medicine continuing to be produced, it can be argued that treatment for an asbestos-related cancer can often be even more expensive by comparison.
This is problematic, because no one would make the mistake of describing cancer treatment as “affordable”. Far from it. The high cost of treatment- not to mention the regional limitations of certain types of treatment- make for an extremely pricey bill, and it’s one that most Americans simply cannot afford. In fact, medical bills are the cause of 2/3rds American bankruptcies, which means that 2 out of every 3 people in America who file for bankruptcy are not filing because of poor money management. Rather, their bankruptcy is due to the fact that medical treatment is astronomically high.
No ‘Luxury of Time’
To make matters worse, most people who are diagnosed with an asbestos-causing cancer are faced with the need to treat time as an equally-precious commodity as money. Asbestos exposure can happen quickly, but the symptoms associated with it have a long latency period.
We can understand the latency of asbestos exposure in much the same way we think of latency in terms of internet streaming and download speeds. If have a poor network connection when trying to stream a movie or host a livestream on social media, this issue can be described as network latency. In other words, it takes a long time for things to render or download.
The same is true with asbestos exposure. The latency period between when someone’s body is exposed to microscopic asbestos fibers and when cancers and other illnesses are developed with their associating symptoms can be as much as fifty years! Some examples of shorter latency periods are not entirely uncommon, but in general, asbestos latency is multiple decades between exposure and symptoms. Though someone may only discover that they have been exposed to asbestos at the point of a cancer diagnosis decades later, the situation is dire and they are in need of immediate care.
How to Find Financial Support for Asbestos Cancer Treatment
That point is easy enough to understand, but if we have already determined that the cost of cancer treatment is so high, how are asbestos victims supposed to receive treatment as quickly as possible when most people cannot afford to do so in the first place?
This brings us to the good news. Fortunately, there are legal rights and financial support options available for those who have been exposed to asbestos. Asbestos cancer patients have rights, and that extends to the different pathways they can utilize to receive necessary compensation to pay for the expensive medical treatments they need.
Mesothelioma legal advice,
Expectations for the Lawsuit Pathway
Let’s assume that someone who receives an asbestos cancer diagnosis of mesothelioma is seeking legal advice and wants to know what their options are. Taking legal action in the form of an asbestos exposure lawsuit might be a feasible option, but filing a lawsuit is merely the first step in a seemingly long, uphill battle.
The litigation process can be very time-consuming, and it’s one of the reasons why settlement agreements are commonly a pathway to settle the matter outside of court. In most cases, what actually occurs before a full-fledged lawsuit is what is known as a settlement. A settlement takes place when both the plaintiff and defendant agree to settle the dispute outside of court, often by agreeing to a list of criteria (payout, protection from future suits, etc.), and in some cases, these agreements are kept confidential between the two parties.
The Lawsuit Process
Even beyond the important consideration of compensation amounts, both sides involved in the lawsuit process will simply opt to settle because of the time and costs that often accompany the complex nature of a lawsuit in its various stages. In other words, lawsuits are time-consuming and expensive for both parties. It takes a lot of time and effort to work through all the elements involved in the discovery process, curating a very solid collection of evidence and documentation, and vetting the expert witnesses that might be used. These are all considerations that make the lawsuit process less than straightforward.
Other Forms of Compensation
It is important to know that if a victim does not want to enter into the unknown arena of asbestos litigation, there are both Veterans and Social Security options for receiving compensation. However, anyone who has dealt government entities should expect that this process is often far less than ideal. Significant documentation and long wait times are stereotypical for government programs, which does not mean that they are inadequate, but again, it may represent a slower option that many asbestos victims do not have time to suffer through.
An Alternative Pathway: Asbestos Trusts
Unfortunately, plaintiffs typically have a strong case when they have severe disease, meaning that time (again) is of the essence. If this is the case, it is helpful to know that there are other options besides going to trial or even accepting a settlement offer. The easiest and fastest option is known as an asbestos trust claim. The asbestos claims process does not require the need to file a lawsuit at all, and they are a risk-free option compared to filing a lawsuit and going to trial. If you or a loved one are in need of financial compensation and want to explore an easier method, reach out to one of the professionals at Asbestos Claims today to find out what your next steps should be.