Asbestos Lawsuits On The Rise, Awards Increase in Value

St. Paul, MNThere is a new term floating around courtrooms, and articulated in many an asbestos lawsuit: 'asbestos wives and daughters.' The phenomenon denotes family members of asbestos workers who unknowingly brought asbestos fibers into their homes from the workplace, only to 'infect' a beloved family member.

Heather Von St. James of St. Paul, Minnesota is one of those asbestos daughters.

As revealed in the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale (5/24/12), Von St. James remembers hugging her father as a child after he came home from his job in the construction industry, sanding drywall. She recalled a powdery, white dust covering his jacket—a jacket she often donned to dash outside to tend to her pet rabbits.

Unbeknownst to her, asbestos lurked in that dust and would result, decades later, in a diagnosis of mesothelioma—a disease primarily affecting the delicate abdominal lining encasing the lungs and other internal organs in the abdomen. Two weeks of exposure, according to research referenced by the Sun-Sentinel, can result in a diagnosis of asbestos mesothelioma anywhere from 30 to 50 years after the fact.

Von St. James is in her early 40s. Following a diagnosis of asbestos cancer in 2005 after the birth of her daughter, Von St. James had a lung removed and was left chronically weak and easily fatigued, according to the report. As a plaintiff in an asbestos lawsuit, Von St. James pursued asbestos compensation resulting from her inability to care for her daughter or continue working as a hair stylist. She had to give up her hair salon.

While pursuing her asbestos claims in court, Von St. James and her legal team estimated that her asbestos injury cost her in excess of $5 million in future earnings. While Von St. James could not reveal the amount of her settlement due to a confidentiality agreement, Westlaw Journal Asbestos notes the average asbestos compensation award in 2011 was $10.5 million.

Such amounts are much greater than what was considered the norm a decade ago, lawyers say.

Asbestos lawsuits are on the rise given the dramatically long latency periods of 30 to 50 years—exposure dating back to a time when asbestos was finding traction in the public conscience as an avoidable carcinogen. While the greater effort to expunge asbestos from products began to take shape in the 1970s, initial suspicion that asbestos was dangerous dates all the way back to the early 1900s.

Plaintiffs in asbestos lawsuits claim that employers knew, or should have known the risks and dangers related to asbestos exposure, and should have developed policies and protocols to protect employees and their families from asbestos exposure.

The Sun-Sentinel articulated that anyone exposed to asbestos for as little as two weeks has a one-in-20 chance of developing asbestos mesothelioma later in life. The National Cancer Institute has concluded the average patient dies within two years of diagnosis (that diagnosis coming decades after exposure), with more than 90 percent gone within five years.

Little wonder mesothelioma lawsuits are growing, and victims of this horrid disease—many of them innocent family members—seek help and guidance from an asbestosis attorney. Von St. James, down to one lung, considers herself lucky nonetheless, but does not regard herself as cured. Her asbestos compensation "can never replace what I lost," she said.