New York Personal Injury Laws

Properties of Asbestos

Your family member’s been diagnosed with mesothelioma. You know now that asbestos causes mesothelioma. It’s important to learn something about the properties of asbestos. Hi, I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City and I can give you some information about the properties of asbestos.

Asbestos Exposure Claim

You’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma, and you worked at the World Trade Center during it’s construction. The building no longer exists, so how could you possibly bring a claim for your mesothelioma diagnosis? Hi, I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney here in New York City, and I can answer these questions that you might have about the World Trade Center. When the World Trade Center was constructed, it was one of the largest construction projects ever known to man, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the State of New York, entered into contracts with various contractors – general contractors and subcontractors – to do all of the work at this massive, massive project that involved thousands and thousands of workers. During the course of the last decade, we’ve seen many workers who have developed mesothelioma from their work at the World Trade Center, and through the litigation of those cases, we have acquired the contracts, the work records, the documents, which establish which contractors worked at the World Trade Center, what work they did, what work with asbestos was done at the World Trade Center. There’s also prior deposition testimony from other workers who’ve gone before you, who have already  testified to their exposure to asbestos at the World Trade Center. So, there’s a body of evidence and information about how workers were exposed to asbestos at the World Trade Center, and we can use that information, as well as any information that a worker who’s now been diagnosed with mesothelioma could have, to create a full picture of the types of exposures that occurred to workers at the World Trade Center. So, just because the building no longer exists, we are still able to go forward and prove a very strong case regarding exposure to asbestos at the World Trade Center, exposures that can cause mesothelioma to the workers that worked at the World Trade Center. You have questions about mesothelioma and exposure to asbestos. I’m Joe Williams. At our firm, we answer questions from mesothelioma victims and their families every day. Give us a call. We’ll be happy to answer your questions. Thank you.

Protecting Your Rights

When you’re injured on the railroad, the railroad will do everything they can to minimize your wage loss claim. They’ll try to interfere with your medical treatment. They’ll harass you. They may fail to offer you overtime you’re entitled to receive under the contract. They can penalize you in many different ways but the Federal Railroad Safety Act says they can’t do that to you as an interstate railroad employee. You can file a claim with OSHA and if OSHA doesn’t decide the claim within seven months, you can bring a lawsuit in the federal district court. At the Maurer Law Firm, we know how to protect your rights under the Federal Railroad Safety Act.

Dry Cleaner Exposed to Asbestos

Did you know that workers in a dry cleaner can be exposed to asbestos and get mesothelioma? Hi. I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney, and I want to talk to you about some of the exposures that workers in a dry cleaner setting can have to asbestos.

 How Do Dry Cleaners Expose Asbestos

A dry cleaner is a commercial business wherein clothes are laundered and pressed. In order to do that, steam presses exist at the dry cleaner. Now, the steam, and this is some years ago, was created by equipment, a boiler.

And that boiler would be covered with asbestos, and the pipes from that steam-generating boiler would be covered with asbestos steam pipes. The steam is fed to a press machine. In many circumstances the press consist of two metal surfaces that push down on clothes, and basically iron them or press them.

And on the two metal surfaces, the coding of that metal surface is a pad on each of the surfaces. And that pad, some years ago, was made of asbestos to handle the high heat of the steam that is penetrating through the pad and into the clothes to steam the clothing.

And because of the high heat, and because of the commercial use of these steam presses in which hundreds of garments was steamed by day, the pads would wear out very quickly and have to be replaced. Often the pads would burn on to the press, and have to be torn off.

And the worker in the dry cleaner would be exposed to asbestos from those pads, and the use and the replacement of the pads on a regular basis. Additionally, in large commercial settings where laundry is done, large commercial washers and dryers has asbestos components.

 Asbestos Exposure Continued

In the United States Navy, the ships had washers and dryers that had asbestos components. And the workers who worked on these machines, had to deal with these components which included asbestos gaskets and asbestos insulation.

And that work exposed them potentially to asbestos, which could cause mesothelioma years later, years, decades, after the work was done. I’m telling you all this because you have questions about mesothelioma. I’m Joe Williams.

 Contact Us With Questions and Concerns

At my office we handle mesothelioma cases every day, and we answer questions for mesothelioma victims and for their families each and every day, and we deal with these issues constantly. If you have questions, please feel free to contact my office. We’ll answer your questions. Thank you very much.

Putting Together a Mesothelioma Case

How is a lawsuit started for a mesothelioma victim? Hi. I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City. I can tell you that the first thing that is done to start a mesothelioma case, is a very thorough investigation.

 Gathering Evidence

And one of the most important parts of that investigation is, a conversation with the victim of mesothelioma and with their family. And during those conversations, and they’re just general talks in the victim’s home, we talk about all the ways that that victim could have been exposed to asbestos during the course of their life.

In all the different settings, whether it’ll be at work, at home, through family members, environmentally. We talk about all the possible exposures that that particular person could have had. We then take that information and do a thorough work-up of the case.

An investigation of job sites, of different places where exposure to asbestos could have happened for this particular victim. We then take all that information and we formulate a legal document. It’s called a summons and complaint.

 What To Do With the Evidence

And a summons and complaint is the document that starts off a legal case. It basically accuses the defendants, the companies the cases are brought against, of wrongdoing as it relates to this particular mesothelioma victim.

That document is prepared, and because mesothelioma victims are suffering, and because time is of the essence, and timing is very important, it’s important to know that in New York state and in many states, we are able to file this document electronically.

We file it immediately. It’s filed electronically, and then we serve the document through our process service on these companies in every state in the United States. And this whole process can happen within days.

We move at light speed with respect to mesothelioma cases because of the nature of this disease. You may have many more questions about how a mesothelioma case is started, and we can provide the answers to your questions.

I’m Joe Williams. At our office we represent mesothelioma victims and their families every day. These are the kinds of cases that we handle each and every day, and we’ll be happy to answer your questions. I encourage you to call the number on your screen below, that’s my office number, and we’ll answer your questions. Thank you.

The Steps to Proving a Mesothelioma Case

How do we prove a case for a mesothelioma victim in court? Hi, I’m Joe Williams, I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City. I can tell you that in order to prove a mesothelioma case, a legal case for a victim in court the first thing that we have to do is we have to be able to prove that a particular company is responsible to that particular victim. So how do we do that? Well one of the primary ways that we establish that proof is through the victim’s own testimony at a pretrial deposition. Also, through their testimony at trial in which they talk about that particular company’s products and how they believe that product exposed them to asbestos. They generally talk about the dust that was created from the work that they did with that product. There’s also other ways that we prove that that particular company is responsible to our client. That’s in the form of employment records, work records, for navy seamen, men who served on navy ships. We get records from the US Naval Archive in Washington D.C. for that particular ship. Often these records show every piece of equipment that was ever put on those ships. So there’s many ways to prove one particular company’s responsibility to our client. The next thing we have to show is that that company new or should have known that asbestos was dangerous and that they never warned our clients about these dangerous. How do we do that? Well we do that through company documents, documents from that same company that failed to warn our clients about the dangers of asbestos through internal memorandums, through internal research documents. All of which that show that that company either knew or that they certainly should have known that asbestos was a danger and that they never warned our clients about the dangers of asbestos. The last thing generally that we have to show in a legal case for a mesothelioma victim is that our client was injured. Of course every mesothelioma victim suffers greatly. It’s not just them but their spouses and family suffer as well. We document that through the use of medical experts who talk about mesothelioma and it’s course on the human body. Also through that individual victim’s medical records. Also through the testimony of physicians sometimes the treating. Physicians who actually treated out client were able to document all of the different medical treatments and really all of the suffering that our client has gone through from the time of their first symptoms until the present day when we’re in court dealing with that mesothelioma case in front of a judge and jury. Now, you may have many more questions about all the ways that we seek to prove a mesothelioma case on behave of our client and we can answer those questions for you. I’m Joe Williams and in our firm we handle cases for mesothelioma victims everyday. This is what we do. It’s who we are. I encourage you to call the number on your screen below. That’s our office number and we’ll answer you questions as well. Thank you.

Personal Injury Medical Process

It’s quite common in my experience for people to come into my office who think they have a soft tissue injury and they don’t realize the serious nature of the injury that they’ve sustained. A herniated disk is a good example of that. Sometimes people have herniated disk and they have pain in their back going down their legs to their feet, yet diagnostic tests don’t show the herniation and they can be wandering from doctor to doctor. At the Maurer Law Firm, we have a lot of experience with these types of injuries, and we have the resources so that we can assist you in obtaining a proper diagnosis and care.

Iron Workers Diagnosed With Mesothelioma

You worked as an iron worker, and you’ve now been diagnosed with mesothelioma and you’re asking yourself, “How did I get this disease?” Hi, I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney, and I want to talk to you about the types of exposures that iron workers had to asbestos. In order to do that, I want to talk to you about a former client of mine who was a union iron worker. He dealt with structural steel which he installed and worked on, which was also being sprayed with asbestos containing fire proofing spray. Now, he would be on one area of a floor while the sprayers were following his working and spraying the structural steel with fire proofing. That entailed mixing the dry fire proofing product with water, putting it into a gun, and the fire proof sprayers would spray the I-beams and the structural steel with this asbestos containing substance. While that was being sprayed onto the I-beams and into the air, my client was in the work space breathing in any asbestos dust created by that. In addition, after the fire proofing spray dried, and the ceiling had to be put in, hangers had to be attached – metal hangers had to be attached to the structural steel so that the drop ceiling could be installed. In order to do that, the fire proofing spray had to be scraped off of the structural steel. It was dry by that point, and the scraping of the fire proofing which contained asbestos caused dust in the air which the iron workers breathed – including my client. He also worked doing some ornamental iron work, and that meant that he was present at job sites when the job was more in the finishing process; when the internal walls were being put up, when the floors were being put in, because he would be putting in such things as railings and other steel fixtures, in perhaps tenant spaces or common areas. He was exposed to the work of other trades men who worked with joint compound or floor tile or ceiling tiles. Things that contained asbestos, and working with those products caused dust in the air that all the workers on the job site would breathe in. All of them being susceptible to later being diagnosed with mesothelioma. Now, decades later, years and years after his work with asbestos and work around asbestos, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. His doctors, after taking an occupational history, told him that his exposures to asbestos back on the work sites was the cause of his mesothelioma diagnosis. Now, I am telling you all this because you have questions about mesothelioma and about the types of exposures to asbestos that cause mesothelioma. I’m Joe Williams, and at our office we deal with these issues every day. We represent victims of mesothelioma and their families as they pursue justice for exposures to asbestos. If you have questions, contact our office. We’ll answer your questions. Thanks for listening.

Diagnosed With Mesothelioma

You’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma, but your employer and every employer that you ever worked for is out of business and you’re concerned with how you could have a legal case.

Hi, I’m Joe Williams. I’m a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City, and I can tell you that almost every client that walks into my office brings up this concern. I’ll give you an example.

 Worker’s Compensation for Asbestos Exposure

A plumber that I represented recently came to my office and talked to me about his exposures to asbestos, but his big concern was that the four plumbing companies that he worked for during the course of his career as a plumber, which was over 40 years, they were all small companies and were all out of business. I explained to him that in New York State, and in most states, you can’t even sue your employer for work-related injuries; your benefits are limited to worker’s compensation.

How a Plumber was Exposed

So when I met with this client, this plumber, we talked about all the ways he was exposed to asbestos and it came out that he was exposed to asbestos from all types of equipment during his 40-year career as a plumber, boilers, and pumps, and asbestos cement, and pipe covering and pipes, and all sorts of things, and he was able to have a very strong and successful case.

 Employer Out of Business, Not Out of Responsibility

Why am I sharing this with you? Because this is a common concern. The client comes into my office and informs more that their employers are out of business, and they think that they can’t address their legal rights. And I explain to them that it’s not just the employer who can be responsible, there’s many other entities who can be responsible, and an asbestos case is really an attempt to capture all of the lifetime exposures to asbestos.

 Contact Us With Questions or Concerns

I’m sure you have many more questions about this topic as it relates to mesothelioma, and we can answer those questions. I’m Joe Williams, and if you look at the screen below you’ll see my office number. I encourage you to give us a call, we’ll answer your questions. Thank you.