The Economics of Mesothelioma: Costs and Compensations
An overview of the financial burdens and compensation options for mesothelioma patients.
The staggering medical costs associated with asbestos treatment, which are at least $50,000 in most cases, are just the beginning of mesothelioma costs. Cutting-edge gene therapy treatments, which doctors normally use in advanced cases, easily cost ten times as much. The noneconomic losses, such as the victim’s emotional distress and a family’s lost future emotional and financial support, is almost impossible to calculate.
The Great Asbestos Industry Cover-Up
On top of that because of the long-term asbestos coverup, substantial punitive damages are available on these cases as well. Since at least the early 1900s, asbestos users like Owens Corning and Johns Mansville knew that asbestos caused serious lung diseases that are normally fatal. However, they kept using this substance, blatantly putting profits before people.
So, an asbestos exposure lawyer can obtain substantial compensation in these cases. Generally, these claims settle out of court. These resolutions significantly benefit victim/plaintiffs who need and deserve money now, not later. However, as outlined below, fair compensation is a process, not a result.
This process is much more complex than it was before 2000. Most states have enacted tort reform laws that limit the amount of compensation in these cases, or even the ability to obtain compensation. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous lawyers have contributed to the problem. Asbestos users put profits before people, and some professionals do the same thing. Therefore, only the best asbestos exposure lawyer should handle your claim.
Generally, cancer, like mesothelioma, is a genetic and/or lifestyle disease. However, mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of lung cancer, is usually an occupational and/or environmental disease. Therefore, medical treatment is different and usually more expensive.
For almost a century, asbestos, a fireproof mineral, was deeply embedded in the supply chain. As a result, at-risk occupations vary. They include:
Sailors/Shipbuilders:
The rush to avoid accidental and combat-related fires triggered the Navy to line all its ships with asbestos, from bow to stern and in every nook and cranny, from floor tiles to boiler room liners. Sailors were exposed to this asbestos, as were the people who built these ships.
Auto Parts Manufacturing:
Many auto parts, like brake pads and hood liners, must withstand extreme heat. Since asbestos is so efficient and cheap, to many of these companies, it seemed like a miracle mineral. Its “miraculous” properties prompted these users to overlook the known health risks.
Construction:
Back in the day, attic insulation for residential and commercial properties was almost pure asbestos. Ditto wiring and plumbing insulation. Generally, builders used chrysotile (white) asbestos, a crumbly substance that’s easy to manipulate and also breaks down quickly, releasing toxic dust and fibers into the air. Building supply companies also laced other products, like floor tiles and roof shingles, with asbestos.
Once again back in the day, take-home asbestos poisoning victims were the most common kind of environmental exposure victims. Women who lived with asbestos industry workers, many of whom unintentionally carried toxic fibers home on their clothes and in their cars, contracted mesothelioma at an alarming rate.
Now and for the foreseeable future, the dubious distinction of most common environmental asbestos poisoning victim probably belongs to talc-asbestos victims. For years, Johnson & Johnson executives knew their talcum powder was laced with asbestos, but they concealed the problem instead of solving it.
Talc, Baby Powder, Asbestos and Mesothelioma
Asbestos-laced talc may also be in a wide range of other products, such as makeup, baby powder, chewing gum, and pharmaceutical pills.
The mode of exposure varies significantly. But however asbestos dust and fibers enter the body, they usually cause one of the three following diseases:
Mesothelioma:
Because this type of lung cancer is so rare and aggressive, it’s hard to diagnose and even harder to treat. This combination means that the mesothelioma survival rate is extremely low.
Asbestosis:
Toxic asbestos dust and fibers can burn airways. The resulting scar tissue blocks these tiny airways, many of which aren’t much bigger than the tip of a pencil. A radical lung transplant is the only effective asbestosis treatment.
Pleural Thickening:
This non-malignant, yet serious, lung disease resembles mesothelioma in many ways. Asbestos fibers inflame the pleural lawyer that surrounds the lungs, in many cases dangerously constricting the lung.
Other asbestos exposure illnesses include stomach cancer, throat cancer, cervical cancer, and digestive tract cancer, usually stomach cancer.
The best asbestos exposure lawyer should have the right combination of experience, dedication, and accessibility. Like poor Goldilocks, you need a lawyer who isn’t too hot or too cold.
Accessibility is a good example. Most asbestos poisoning victims are in very poor physical condition. Waiting two or three weeks to see a lawyer across town isn’t conducive to a good attorney-client partnership. On the other hand, if a lawyer is available on demand, there’s probably a reason the lawyer doesn’t have many clients.
Similarly, the most important quality, experience, goes beyond years of experience. Many asbestos exposure lawyers practice law for many years and hardly ever go to court. Your lawyer should be ready, willing, and able to go the distance for you.
Although most asbestos exposure claims settle out of court, they usually go through the long, and sometimes frustrating, legal process.
This process begins with a thorough exposure/illness investigation, as outlined above. Lawyers who do their homework usually do well on test days.
The first test usually comes almost immediately after lawyers file legal paperwork. Defendants often file procedural motions to delay the process and test the victim’s resolve. These motions also test the strength, or weakness, of the victim/plaintiff’s case.
Help with your Asbestos Claim
Following discovery, a court-supervised information exchange process, settlement negotiations begin in mediation, a court-supervised settlement negotiation settlement. Since both sides have a legal duty to negotiate in good faith, civil mediation is about 90 percent successful in asbestos exposure cases.
This process varies slightly in different matters. For example, the litigation process in a Social Security Disability claim is not the same as the litigation process in a defective products claim. Yoru asbestos exposure lawyer will outline all your legal options and explain them to you in language you understand.