Recovering Financial Compensation

Corporate Wrongdoing

It was suspected as early as 1927 that asbestos was a deadly substance.  In 1950, Newsweek Magazine reported that air pollution with asbestos was a probable cause of lung and respiratory tract cancer.  Yet many manufacturers and distributors of asbestos or asbestos-containing products, and employers in industries where asbestos was used, did not take appropriate precautions to protect people from exposure.

Two Types of Financial Compensation for Asbestos Exposure

In both mesothelioma trial verdicts that find for the Plaintiff and cases that settle before trial, the amount awarded or settled on is based on compensation for two kinds of loss: economic loss and non-economic loss.

Economic loss refers to the financial damages resulting from the illness and death of a mesothelioma victim due to wrongful action.  This type of financial loss includes:

• Medical expenses - doctor and hospital bills, medications, insurance co-pays and deductibles, medical devices and home health care.
• Lost wages – the pay the victim loses beginning when they have to miss work or stop working as a result of their illness, through to their expected retirement.  This can also include lost retirement pay and social security?
• Loss of household services – these are the services the family or spouse depended on the victim to do before they got sick, and will have to find someone else to take care of.  This could include services such as yard care, car or house repairs, cooking, child care and much more.
• Other miscellaneous expenses that apply to each individual case

Calculating Economic Loss

SEG Law’s mesothelioma attorneys have extensive experience assisting their clients to calculate the economic losses they and their family sustain due to wrongful action.  Often, clients are unaware of all the factors that contribute to an accurate calculation and underestimate.

Non-economic loss, or Loss of Consortium, refers to physical and emotional pain the victim suffers as well as to the emotional damage the family suffers when watching a loved one become sick and pass away.  Some examples of Loss of Consortium are:

• Loss of love, society and companionship
• Pain and suffering
• Mental anguish

How is Non-Economic Loss Calculated?

How does one assign a monetary value to the pain a mesothelioma victim suffers?  How can the emotional loss of a loved one be calculated in dollars?  The victims and families we work with often tell us that they’d give all the money in the world to have never had to have gone through mesothelioma.  These questions are really impossible to answer.

Loss of Consortium is not an attempt to quantify pain and suffering in order to be awarded equal compensation for the loss.  Rather, it is a way to hold the manufacturers, distributors and employer that wrongfully exposed the victim to asbestos responsible for their actions.  Many of our clients also consider it a gift to their families to ensure their financial security after they’re gone. 

Because the pain and suffering related to mesothelioma is so great, the Defendants should also have to face great financial responsibility.  Their irresponsible and dangerous actions have serious consequences, and juries use Loss of Consortium awards to hold them accountable for their actions.

Hold Corporate Wrongdoers Responsible

SEG Law’s mesothelioma attorneys have a solid track record of helping clients win millions of dollars in both economic and non-economic damage awards making corporations responsible for the pain and suffering they’ve caused.  (Outcomes depend on the details of each case.)

Are you ready to hold those who’ve negligently exposed you or a family member to asbestos responsible?  Contact us today for a free consultation.