Three simple facts
- Mesothelioma and Asbestosis are unique amongst industrial diseases in that they have only one cause – ASBESTOS
- If you are suffering from mesothelioma then you have been exposed to asbestos
- Regardless of how you were exposed someone is liable and your mesothelioma claim advisor or attorney can help you .
The dangers of asbestos were first discovered in the UK over 120 years ago. By 1930 there was enough publicised evidence that no employer in any industrialised country had an excuse to plead ignorance of the facts and not protect their employees against possible lethal exposure. The first attributed death was in 1924 the first lawsuit against an asbestos manufacturer was filed in 1929.
But in the 1930’s the term Health and Safety was unknown and all irresponsible employers suppressed the evidence and continued to expose their employees to all manner of hazardous chemicals and materials, including asbestos for the next 50 years or more
Before mesothelioma treatments improved over 100,000 asbestos related deaths had occurred in the US shipbuilding industry alone.
As the Twin Towers fell in 2001 over 1000 tons of asbestos was released into the lungs of New Yorkers
Governments too were originally complicit in promoting ignorance in the face of evidence. But, as you would hope, it was from governments that the first moves to ban asbestos came. Most western countries now have complete bans on the production and use of asbestos. Unfortunately, despite the above facts, this ban on asbestos use does not include the United States
Canada was a major producer and particularly slow to legislate, it was not until 2018 that a total ban was imposed, but even then the Liberal Government of Justin Trudeau has left the door open for re-processing of the asbestos tailings which remain around the closed mines in Quebec. This decision will have the potential to allow deaths from a disease with a fifty plus year latency (incubation period) to continue for the remainder of this century. The world wide asbestos lobby which, like the tobacco industry, uses pseudo science to promote its lethal products is still headquartered in Quebec
The exclusive link between mesothelioma and asbestos explains why asbestos personal injury claims are the most common types of litigation in the US today. When many US Asbestos companies filed for bankruptcy in the 1980’s they set up trusts to cover future personal injury claims. The associated costs of fees and compensation are expected to reach more than $200 BILLION.
These trusts are worth billions and with such an undeniable cause and so many victims it is not surprising that litigation is very common. However although pursuing a claim in the US can be very lucrative it is still not a straightforward task and can take a considerable length of time.
Let me also say that the legal burden of proof and compensation amounts can vary significantly, between countries. As I only have detailed knowledge of making a claim in the UK any advice on making claims in other countries must come from your mesothelioma claim advisor, lawyer or attorney.
When my first specialist announced my mesothelioma diagnosis and asked had I ever been in contact with asbestos I was in such a state of shock that I couldn’t process it. But after I started chemo I began to try to think where and when I might have been exposed.
In my job as an Engineering Designer I was occasionally required to visit oil process plants, these visits would often require going into normally inaccessible areas to take measurements. These plants all had records of installed asbestos. So these places were my first suspects, but how can you ever truly know or prove it?
I first investigated making a claim through my Canadian Provincial Workers Compensation system. I soon gave up when I found that they would not consider any claim from anyone over 65. Ridiculous when you consider mesothelioma often has a latency of over 50 years meaning I would have to have been exposed at 15 or earlier.
It began to seem that due to all previous Canadian government’s complete support of the asbestos mining industry rather than their victims and the fact that I had no proof of asbestos exposure or a known defendant it was unlikely that a private personal injury claim in Canada would ever be successful in my lifetime.
Then I found Rohan Atherton. Rohan is a mesothelioma claim advisor who’s practice, Atherton Law, advises mesothelioma victims on compensation regardless of where in the world they live or were exposed. He has offices in Canada and Australia and advises clients mainly from Canada, the UK, US and Australia but often has enquiries from other countries.
Rohan first asked me to make a list of all the building sites or industrial facilities I’d visited in the course of my career. As soon as I started this list I began to remember my very first job in the UK way back in 1965 when I was an apprentice heating engineer. I usually worked in an office but as part of my apprenticeship I was seconded to a large building site in West London for a year’s practical experience.
I clearly remember that the engineers shared a site hut with the ‘lagger’s’ who insulated the pipes. In those days they mixed asbestos and magnesium into a slurry and spread it onto the pipes. The mixing process created clouds of dust and this permeated the lagger’s overalls with white asbestos dust. I often had to go into their side of the hut to make the tea when they were on their break, I was also often around the areas where they worked while I was inspecting progress.
It is not uncommon for such minimal secondary exposure to result in mesothelioma. There have been many documented cases of wives and children of asbestos workers contracting mesothelioma from only the exposure to their husband’s or father’s overalls.
When Rohan received my list he decided that my work experience in the UK had by far the strongest evidence of asbestos exposure. He also pointed out that a successful claim was more likely in the UK because the law favored the claimant and could be made “on the balance of probabilities” This means that I did not have to prove conclusively that my company had negligently caused my exposure. I only had to provide evidence that I was in a location where the circumstances pointed to a strong possibility of asbestos exposure.
This is a relatively new legal position in the UK, previous to 2007 a mesothelioma victim was forced to prove that they were exposed by a specific company. The company would aggressively defend and the victim often died before the case was heard.
At this point Rohan, my mesothelioma claim advisor, recommended that I get in touch with Thompsons in Newcastle , a firm of Solicitors who deal exclusively with Industrial Injury claims specialising in asbestos related diseases in the UK.
Over the next two and a half years I worked closely with my mesothelioma claim advisor at Thompsons putting together statements of claim and my case for compensation against the defendant who was now the insurance company representing my former employer who had long since gone out of business.
Even though there was no opposition from the defendant a compensation claim is complex, it involves many different areas of compensation. For this reason it took 2 years to reach settlement. However fairly soon after the process started I was awarded a lump sum disability payment together with a disability pension from the UK Dept of Pensions. The lump sum had to be repaid after settlement but the pension is for life. Once it was clear that the claim would go through I also received a significant interim advance payment on the claim.
So the claim is now paid but I was never charged by Thompsons for their considerable services. In the UK the solicitor or lawyer makes a separate claim on the defendant for their costs, it is not deducted from the claimants compensation.
The compensation I received is a lump sum but it also contains the provision that should a new immunotherapy treatment or clinical trial for mesothelioma become available that is not covered by my Canadian Health Scheme. With the recommendation of my oncologist I can make an application for the defendant to fund that treatment over and above the compensation that has already been paid. Providing it is a recognised treatment it is likely that the funding will be granted.
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