People afflicted with mesothelioma have a legal right to claim compensation from companies manufacturing asbestos products. Lawyers will help them acquire reparation due them. However, all states have a statute of limitations or limited time periods for filing these type of lawsuits, and these vary from state to state.
Relatives of mesothelioma victims who have passed away as a result of the disease are also eligible to file a claim. Family members exposed to asbestos in a secondary manner (through asbestos brought home by family members working in an asbestos mines or asbestos manufacturing companies) may also be entitled to file a claim.
Understanding the Importance of the Issue
Mesothelioma death rates have increases alarmingly in the past three decades, claiming 43,000 Americans. Symptoms of this disease don't show up until after 20 - 50 years after exposure, so when the patient is diagnosed with the cancer, it is usually in the advance stages, which means little can be done. 75% of people diagnosed with mesothelioma die within a year after diagnosis.
Mesothelioma is a very painful disease. Symptoms include chest or abdominal pains, back pains, loss of appetite, weight loss, persistent coughing, hoarseness, nausea, vomiting, headache, fever and lack of sleep. It is also an expensive disease. Although incurable, there are a couple of treatments approved to prolong the survival and to lessen the discomfort brought by the disease. Treatments that are available, like chemotherapy, radiation and surgery are expensive.
Compensation claims are intended to help the patient with the burden of having mesothelioma. Adequate settlements will enable the patient to pay the medical fees and will provide for the families of mesothelioma victims who have passed away.
Claims in the US have been steadily increasing in the recent years since 1990. To date, there are more than 500,000 documented claims against dozens of defendants. And because a claimant usually files his lawsuit against several companies, there is a documented evidence of more than 300,000 claims from each of the many asbestos manufacturing companies.
No one knows the total amount paid by defendants to resolve mesothelioma claims since the first mesothelioma lawsuit, but it is rumored to be at an all time high of $21 billion dollars. Settlement amounts range from hundreds of thousand to millions. Some companies have even been documented to spend about $1 billion dollars apiece to settle just one litigation claim! Thousands of firms, including small companies have been sued in the last 3 decades, and to date, 41 companies have declared bankruptcy.
Source by Chirag Chhita
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