Mesothelioma Class Action Lawsuit: Filing a Lawsuit for Asbestos Exposure

Mesothelioma class action lawsuit is an important term that reflects the attention of patients and their families towards filing a valid claim for all the damage. It basically involves a group of plaintiffs suing a defendant.

To be precise, plaintiffs involve those who have almost similar types of history of their asbestos exposure. In today's perspective, mesothelioma class action lawsuits are quite uncommon.

And so, patients who have got exposure due to asbestos can seek financial compensation mainly through personal injury.

 

What Is a Mesothelioma Class Action Lawsuit?

The term basically involves a condition where a number of plaintiffs suing the same defendant for the purpose of damages. Plaintiffs are nothing but somewhat larger group of people having several injuries.

As the word seems, the larger group can sometimes comprise up to several hundreds of people.

Due to the above, class actions often come as a term for victim of a mass tort. In order to explain this well, asbestos exposure is the most common reason to be responsible for the above.

The fact is that asbestos exposure happens to be something with longest kind of mass tort in the United States history. Most commonly, those having mesothelioma are free to file a Mesothelioma Class Action Lawsuit.

But if you look in terms of today’s perspective, Mesothelioma Class Action Lawsuits have become almost nonexistent.

It's mainly because courts have propagated that asbestos happens to fall as an inappropriate class action mass tort.

However, there is another way of filing the claim for such victims. To be precise, asbestos victims can easily go for individual legal actions.

In order to accomplish that, they will require an experienced mesothelioma lawyer who can readily help them with more options to file their claim to reap maximum financial compensation.

 

What Is a Mass Tort?

Here you must be aware about the term Mass Tort before proceeding further. Please note that A mass tort is basically is an act that injure a large number of people at the same time.

One example that comes into picture becomes feasible when asbestos exposure includes explosions and plane crashes.

Dr. David Sugarbaker, Baylor College of Medicine

 

How to File a Class Action Lawsuit for Mesothelioma

There are a number of ways that you can file a Class Action Lawsuit for Mesothelioma. Please note that in the modern scenario, mesothelioma class lawsuits become unlikely to make it past the initial steps.

At the same time, mesothelioma lawsuits prove to be more viable. It all happens that mesothelioma patients are given a facility to better file claim for their individual injuries.

The courts in the US have permitted such patients to file wrongful death lawsuits. In order to make this happen, lawyers from experienced mesotheliomalaw firms can come forward to help the victims in the best and affordable manner.

The process of class action commences with a group of plaintiffs who files a lawsuit. They mainly claim to represent mass tort victims.

Here, a judge needs to make sure that they are better using a set of standard protocols including:

Class size: First, a judge doesn't certify a class which is smaller than a few dozen people. They can also be uncertified if they are unable to determine the size of their class precisely.

Similar injuries among plaintiffs: The same thing happens here when a judge uncertified a class when injuries tend to vary in both type and severity.

Please also note that a class action can't move past the basic and initial filing stage without undergoing certification from the judge.

A series of such cases came forward in 1990's actually had made it quite tough to certify asbestos classes.

And so, the above cases basically determine that this looks quite tough to determine a class size.

Class members appear in future mostly which signifies the long latency period of Mesothelioma diagnosis. The above also stands true that injuries happened due to asbestos exposure were too tough to certify a class.

Now, in such an event where a judge certifies an asbestos class, it permits the lawsuit to be proceeded. And so, all such cases start following a process common for all class action lawsuits.

Also Read: Asbestosis & Mesothelioma: What's Common Between Them?

 

Mesothelioma Class Action Lawsuit Steps

Take a look at different Class Action Lawsuit Steps crucial to remember before going to file a claim:

 

Step 1: Plaintiffs who represent a class of mass tort victims file a lawsuit

Step 2: A judge always needs to certify a class

Step 3: It's the court to decide the members of the class. It further notifies them about their inclusion in the upcoming lawsuit

Step 4: The case can then be moved ahead just like a normal lawsuit

Step 5: Any damages happened due to a verdict or damages has to be divided among all class members

 

Please note that with the passage of time, Asbestos class actions have come out of the favor as a litigation strategy. It's mainly because they won't easily get a class certification from a judge appointed.

Due to the above an individual compensation is likely to result from mesothelioma settlement or trial verdict.

 

Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) for Asbestos Cases

Using a class action, you can better consolidate mass tort cases. As we mentioned earlier, the above method has almost fallen out of favor in asbestos litigation.

There is just another such method called multidistrict litigation (MDL). Here a special court directs and consolidates similar lawsuits only for pretrial proceedings.

Please note that MDL is more commonly used for asbestos litigation. The term has become quite popular in courts for filing mesothelioma lawsuits.

 

Class Action Lawsuits: An Option for Mesothelioma Victims?

As we stated earlier, Class action mesothelioma lawsuits have now become quite rare. Also note that courts have now come to the conclusion that asbestos class actions are not viable any longer.

There are a number of reasons to support the fact that judges don't allow mesothelioma class actions any longer.

One common reason is that plaintiffs’ injuries often differs in the type and severity of injuries as compared to mesothelioma victims.

At the same time, the above also becomes tough to balance various interests of class members who have the chances to develop mesothelioma in the future or who are already suffering from the disease.

But the above never says that such people can't file a claim for compensation. In such cases, they can readily take help from experienced attorneys for mesothelioma claims. And so, they can file individual lawsuits.

 

Advantages of Filing an Individual Mesothelioma Lawsuit

Please note that most mesothelioma lawsuits are being filed on individual basis and not class. Take a look at some of the advantages of filing an individual asbestos lawsuit, including:

They can receive somewhat higher compensation

An agreement of settlement doesn't always need to be negotiated among plaintiffs. It's because they can involve a larger group of people with conflicting interests and motives

In the filing of individual cases, a legal team can dedicatedly help

Here individual lawsuits can be easily tailored to some specific facts of the victim's exposure history and severity. Further there can be 2 types of individual mesothelioma actions:

 

Personal Injury Lawsuits: Here, mesothelioma patients are directed to file their personal injury lawsuits. They are free to file against an asbestos company or those responsible for such an exposure

Wrongful Death Lawsuits: Just like the above, Surviving family members are free to file wrongful death lawsuits. They can file after a patient dies from mesothelioma.

There are many instances when successful lawsuits grab higher compensation as compared to class action lawsuits.

And so, heavy payouts given to the victims (individual lawsuits) directly help them and their family members. Please note that average mesothelioma settlement generally ranges from $1 million to $1.4 million.

Also, it's seen that a mesothelioma verdict attracts $2.4 million in compensation.

Also Read: 5 Known Reasons Why You Require A Mesothelioma Attorney