Hawaiʻi Mesothelioma Lawyer: Asbestos Claims, Deadlines & Compensation

If you or a family member has been diagnosed with mesothelioma after working in Hawaiʻi, more than one kind of claim may be available. Hawaiʻi families may have lawsuits against the companies that made and sold asbestos products and against the private companies that owned the mills and plants where the exposure happened, claims against asbestos bankruptcy trusts, and benefits: VA disability for veterans exposed in service, FECA for civilian employees of the Navy and other federal agencies (including the civilian workforce at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard), Longshore benefits for employees of private ship-repair contractors, Hawaiʻi workers' compensation, and Social Security disability for workers under full retirement age.

Hawaiʻi gives a diagnosed worker two years to file a personal-injury case. Exactly when the clock starts varies, so to be safe, count from the date of diagnosis. After a death, the family's wrongful-death claim has its own two-year deadline from the date of death. The safest step is to call as soon as possible after diagnosis.

You do not need to know the name of the asbestos product before you call. Many strong Hawaiʻi cases begin with one sentence: "Dad worked at Pearl Harbor." Our team reconstructs exposure from employment records, ship and shipyard histories, coworker information, plantation and mill records, and the asbestos trusts' lists of Hawaiʻi worksites.

Was the exposure at a Hawaiʻi shipyard, plantation, or military site?

Hawaiʻi's asbestos history runs through the Navy, the sugar and pineapple industries, harbor and waterfront work, power generation, and the military installations on Oʻahu and the neighbor islands. Asbestos turned up in pipe and boiler insulation, pumps, valves, gaskets, packing, turbines, fireproofing, flooring, and roofing — on ships, in mills, in canneries, in power plants, and in barracks and hangars across the islands.

The asbestos trusts' lists hold 269 Hawaiʻi entries across 50 communities, from 17 trusts. One plant can appear many times, under different names or on different trusts' lists. Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard is the Hawaiʻi worksite the most trusts recognize. Dozens of our clients worked at Hawaiʻi job sites.

Hawaiʻi worksite	City	Why it matters
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard	Pearl Harbor, Oʻahu	The Pacific Fleet's main maintenance and overhaul yard since 1908, run by the Navy. At least 8 trusts, including Johns-Manville.
Maui Electric — Kahului Generating Station	Kahului, Maui	For decades the main power plant serving Maui. At least 5 trusts, including Johns-Manville.
Pioneer Mill Company	Lahaina, Maui	West Maui's sugar mill from the 1860s until 1999. At least 5 trusts, including Johns-Manville.
Oahu Sugar Company	Waipahu, Oʻahu	Sugar mill from 1897 until 1995; listed under Waipahu and Honolulu, one plantation. At least 5 trusts, including Johns-Manville.
Chevron (Standard Oil of California) Hawaiʻi refinery	Barbers Point, Oʻahu	Oil refinery. At least 4 trusts, including Johns-Manville.
Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S)	Puʻunēnē, Maui	Hawaiʻi's largest and last sugar plantation; its mill processed the final harvest in 2016. At least 4 trusts, including Johns-Manville.
Honolulu Iron Works	Honolulu, Oʻahu	Foundry and machine shop that built the islands' sugar machinery. At least 4 trusts, including Johns-Manville.
Aloha State Sales Co.	Honolulu, Oʻahu	Honolulu supply company. At least 4 trusts, including Johns-Manville.
Hawaiian Electric — Waiau power plant	Pearl City, Oʻahu	Power plant on Pearl Harbor. At least 4 trusts, including Johns-Manville.
California Packing Corporation	Honolulu, Oʻahu	Pineapple cannery. At least 3 trusts, including Johns-Manville.
Libby, McNeill & Libby cannery	Honolulu, Oʻahu	Pineapple cannery. At least 3 trusts, including Johns-Manville.

Check Hawaiʻi asbestos exposure sites · Search the trusts' Hawaiʻi lists

Not seeing the worksite? That does not mean your family has no claim. Many successful claims are built from product-handling reconstruction, coworker information, historical invoices, trust documents, and records from similar worksites. Military installations — Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi, Schofield Barracks, Fort Shafter, Wheeler Army Airfield, and Tripler Army Medical Center — are worksites too. The United States is not sued as their premises owner, but claims against the manufacturers of the products used there remain.

Your legal options after a Hawaiʻi mesothelioma diagnosis

It helps to think in claim paths, not in one lawsuit. A Hawaiʻi mesothelioma family often has several.

Asbestos trust claims

Dozens of asbestos manufacturers — Johns Manville, Owens Corning, Babcock & Wilcox, A.P. Green, Eagle-Picher, and many others — filed for bankruptcy and established asbestos trusts to pay current and future victims. Trust claims do not require a lawsuit, do not require a trial, and often resolve in months rather than years. The trusts' Hawaiʻi lists tell us before intake which trusts recognize your worksite. Trust payments are made under each trust's own procedures, but a defendant in a lawsuit may argue that they reduce what it owes. Asbestos trust claims explained.

Product liability lawsuits

These are cases against the companies that made and sold the asbestos products your loved one handled or worked around. In Hawaiʻi, a worker's own share of fault only reduces a strict product-liability award, even if it is larger than the defendants' share, and on a strict-liability claim a manufacturer cannot offer evidence of what science knew at the time to show it didn't know asbestos was dangerous. Joint and several liability applies to asbestos and product cases by statute. Product liability lawsuits.

Premises liability lawsuits

These are cases against the private companies that owned and ran the facilities where the exposure happened — the sugar mills, refineries, canneries, and power plants. Hawaiʻi has done away with the old distinction between invitees and licensees: an owner owes everyone reasonably expected on the property reasonable care. An owner that hired a contractor for dangerous work can also be responsible to the contractor's workers. Workers at federal facilities, including Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, do not sue the United States as premises owner. Premises liability lawsuits.

Workers' compensation, FECA, Longshore, VA, and Social Security

Which program applies depends on who employed the worker.

• Civilian employees of the Navy at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, and other federal civilian employees, are covered by FECA. FECA is their only remedy against the United States, and a civil recovery from the manufacturers must be used to repay FECA benefits.
• Employees of private ship-repair contractors may be covered by the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, which also has repayment and settlement-approval rules.
• Workers at private plants and mills are covered by Hawaiʻi workers' compensation, which has its own claim deadlines and a right to repayment from a civil recovery.
• Veterans may qualify for VA disability. The VA has no automatic presumption for asbestos diseases, but it treats in-service asbestos exposure as likely for many Navy ratings; a claim still needs a diagnosis and a doctor's opinion linking the disease to service. VA and FECA benefits for the same disease generally require choosing one.
• Social Security disability is for workers under full retirement age.

A trust or civil recovery doesn't reduce VA disability. Asbestos Disability Claims.

"Can we choose not to sue?"

Yes. Some Hawaiʻi families pursue only trust claims and benefits and never file a lawsuit. That is a legitimate path, and we have walked it with many families. We respect your decision. We will not pressure you into a court case you do not want.

Uncomfortable with the idea of a lawsuit? So was Clarence Borel. He spent 33 years as an insulator on the Gulf Coast and didn't believe in suing anyone — until he realized his coworkers would die the same way he was dying. His 1969 lawsuit helped establish the product-liability law that protects families today, and the cases that followed it eventually led to the bankruptcy trusts that pay claims now. Read his story.

How long do I have to file a Hawaiʻi mesothelioma claim?

Hawaiʻi gives a diagnosed worker two years to file a personal-injury lawsuit. The clock starts when the worker knew, or should have known, of the injury, its connection to asbestos, and the companies' wrongdoing — not at the long-past workplace exposure. Exactly when the clock starts varies, so to be safe, count from the date of diagnosis.

If your loved one has already passed away, the family's wrongful-death claim must be filed within two years of the date of death. The estate can also bring a survival action for the worker's own losses, but that claim keeps the worker's original deadline: it does not get a new two years at death. Call as soon as you can.

Hawaiʻi has no statute of repose for asbestos product cases, so a case is not barred simply because the product was sold decades ago.

If the worker's employer was a private Hawaiʻi company, a workers' compensation claim for an asbestos disease must be filed within two years after the worker learns the disease came from the job, and notice should go to the employer as soon as practicable. Federal employees have three years to file a FECA claim, counted from when they knew or should have known the disease was work-related. A Longshore claim for an occupational disease must be filed within two years after the worker knew or should have known of the link between the job, the disease, and the disability.

Call 833-4-ASBESTOS for a free case review.

Legal detail: Hawaiʻi filing deadlines

Personal injury limitations. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 657-7 requires personal-injury actions to be "instituted within two years after the cause of action accrued." Under Hawaiʻi's discovery rule the claim accrues when the plaintiff "discovers or should have discovered the negligent act, the damage, and the causal connection between the former and the latter" (Yamaguchi v. Queen's Med. Ctr., 65 Haw. 84, 90 (1982); applied to asbestos in In re Hawaii Federal Asbestos Cases (Carvalho v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp.), 871 F.2d 891 (9th Cir. 1989)). A strict-liability claim, which doesn't depend on proving negligence, can accrue earlier than a negligence claim (Iida v. Allied Signal, Inc., 854 F. Supp. 702 (D. Haw. 1994)).

Wrongful death and survival. HRS § 663-3 requires a wrongful-death action to be "commenced within two years from the date of death." In Iida, an asbestos case, the federal court allowed a timely wrongful-death claim to proceed even though some of the estate's own claims were time-barred: the death claim accrues at death and has its own two-year period. The survival action under HRS § 663-7 continues the decedent's own claim and its own deadline.

Warranty claims. Warranty claims usually run four years from delivery of the product (HRS § 490:2-725), not from diagnosis, so they are usually unavailable for products sold decades ago (Iida).

No product statute of repose. HRS § 657-8's ten-year repose covers construction of improvements to real property and expressly preserves product-liability law.

Workers' compensation and FECA. HRS § 386-82 (asbestos claims within two years after knowledge that the injury resulted from the employment); HRS § 386-81 (notice as soon as practicable); 5 U.S.C. § 8122 (FECA: three years; for latent disease, from awareness of the causal relationship); 33 U.S.C. § 913(b)(2) (LHWCA occupational disease: two years after awareness of the relationship between the employment, the disease, and the disability).

Who can be sued in a Hawaiʻi asbestos case?

Hawaiʻi asbestos cases typically involve multiple defendants across several categories. The list expands as exposure history is reconstructed.

Product manufacturers and suppliers

The companies that made, sold, and distributed the asbestos products your loved one handled — insulation, gaskets, packing, refractory materials, joint compounds, brake linings, and many others. Hawaiʻi courts ask three questions about each manufacturer: was the worker exposed to its product, can that exposure cause the disease, and did it cause this worker's disease. Each answer needs expert testimony, but the expert does not have to put a number on the dose.

Premises owners and site operators

The private companies that ran the mills, refineries, canneries, and power plants where the exposure occurred. The question is what the owner knew about the asbestos hazard and what reasonable care it took. The United States is not sued as the owner of Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard or the military bases.

Asbestos bankruptcy trusts

Dozens of major asbestos manufacturers established bankruptcy trusts to pay current and future victims. We file claims with every trust the evidence supports; when each claim is filed is decided case by case with our trial team.

Employers

Hawaiʻi workers' compensation is generally the only remedy against the worker's own employer, and FECA is the only remedy against the United States for federal employees. Claims against other companies — the manufacturers, and site owners that were not the employer — remain. Most Hawaiʻi asbestos cases proceed against companies other than the employer.

Legal detail: Hawaiʻi product liability, premises liability, and workers' compensation

Strict products liability. Hawaiʻi applies strict products liability. Pure comparative fault applies to strict products claims: Kaneko v. Hilo Coast Processing, 65 Haw. 447 (1982), applied comparative principles to products cases; Armstrong v. Cione, 69 Haw. 176 (1987), held that § 663-31's modified rule does not apply to them; and Hao v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 69 Haw. 231 (1987), a Pearl Harbor shipyard asbestos case, held that "pure comparative negligence principles apply to strict products liability claims." Larsen v. Pacesetter Sys., Inc., 74 Haw. 1 (1992), abolished primary implied assumption of risk in strict products liability and implied warranty actions (express assumption of risk survives).

State of the art. "In a strict products liability action, state-of-the-art evidence is not admissible for the purpose of establishing whether the seller knew or reasonably should have known of the dangerousness of his or her product" (Johnson v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc., 69 Haw. 287 (1987), an asbestos case; the court did not decide the question for a failure-to-warn claim).

Government-contractor defense. Manufacturers of equipment built to Navy specifications often raise the federal government-contractor defense. It turns on whether the United States approved reasonably precise specifications, the product conformed to them, and the manufacturer warned the United States about dangers it knew of and the government did not (Boyle v. United Techs. Corp., 487 U.S. 500 (1988)). Defendants raising it often move Navy cases to federal court.

Premises liability. Pickard v. City & County of Honolulu, 51 Haw. 134 (1969), held that "an occupier of land has a duty to use reasonable care for the safety of all persons reasonably anticipated to be upon the premises, regardless of the legal status of the individual" (a licensee case). A premises owner is not a statutory employer of a contractor's workers, has no workers' compensation immunity from them, and can be liable to them for the contractor's failure to take precautions against a peculiar risk of the work (Makaneole v. Gampon, 70 Haw. 501 (1989), applying Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 416 and 427).

Workers' compensation. HRS § 386-5 makes compensation the exclusive remedy against the employer. HRS § 386-8 preserves claims against third persons: the employee must notify the employer of the suit; if the employee has not sued within nine months after the injury, the employer is subrogated to the claim (the employee may still sue or join); no settlement is valid without the written consent of both employer and employee; and the employer is reimbursed from the recovery after its share of litigation expenses and attorney's fees.

Federal workers. FECA (5 U.S.C. § 8116(c)) is exclusive against the United States for federal employees; § 8132 requires a refund of FECA benefits from a third-party recovery (after costs and fees; the employee keeps at least one-fifth of the net), with any surplus credited against future benefits. LHWCA does not cover employees of the United States (33 U.S.C. § 903(b)); for private contractors' employees it is exclusive against the employer (§ 905(a)), a settlement for less than the compensation due needs the prior written approval of the employer and its insurer (§ 933(g)), accepting compensation under an award assigns the third-party claim to the employer unless the worker sues within six months (§ 933(b)), and the employer gets a credit for the net recovery (§ 933(f)).

What compensation can a Hawaiʻi mesothelioma case recover?

A Hawaiʻi mesothelioma case can produce compensation from several sources: the lawsuit, the bankruptcy trust claims, and benefits.

Personal-injury compensation

A diagnosed worker's case may recover:

• Medical expenses — past and future, at the reasonable value of the care. A defendant can't reduce the award to the discounted amounts Medicare or Medicaid paid, though a health insurer that paid the bills may claim repayment from the recovery.
• Lost wages and lost earning capacity — past and future.
• Pain, suffering, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life.
• Punitive damages — where clear and convincing evidence shows the company intended harm, recklessly disregarded a substantial risk of harm, or acted outrageously or maliciously.

Hawaiʻi limits pain-and-suffering damages to $375,000 in most injury cases, but the limit does not apply to asbestos cases or product-liability cases (HRS § 663-8.7).

Wrongful-death compensation

When a worker dies of mesothelioma, Hawaiʻi families may have two claims:

• A wrongful-death claim for the family's financial loss and loss of love and affection — companionship, care, guidance, and support — brought for the spouse or reciprocal beneficiary, children, parents, and anyone who depended on the worker.
• A survival action by the estate for the worker's own losses before death, including pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, and the worker's future earnings beyond what the worker would have spent on their own upkeep and on providing for their family. Punitive damages, where available, belong to this claim.

Legal detail: Hawaiʻi damages, collateral source, and wrongful death

Pain-and-suffering limit. HRS § 663-8.7: "Damages recoverable for pain and suffering as defined in section 663-8.5 shall be limited to a maximum award of $375,000; provided that this limitation shall not apply to tort actions enumerated in section 663-10.9(2)," which include "(C) Toxic and asbestos-related torts" and "(E) Strict and products liability torts."

Collateral source. Bynum v. Magno, 106 Hawaiʻi 81 (2004): the discounted amounts paid by Medicare and Medicaid are not the measure of medical special damages, and billed amounts are admissible. Under HRS § 663-10, the court determines any timely-noticed lien for collateral-source payments, including health insurance, and the lienholder is paid out of the corresponding special damages, less a reasonable share of the plaintiff's costs and fees.

Punitive damages. Guieb v. Guieb, 156 Hawaiʻi 162, 571 P.3d 382 (2025), adopted Restatement (Third) of Torts § 39: the plaintiff must establish tort liability and, "by clear and convincing evidence," that the defendant "intended to harm the plaintiff or others, or recklessly disregarded a substantial risk of harm to the plaintiff or others, or otherwise acted in an outrageous or malicious manner." There is no statutory cap; awards are subject to federal due-process review (BMW of N. Am., Inc. v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559 (1996)). Punitive damages survive to the estate under HRS § 663-7 and are not recoverable in the § 663-3 wrongful-death action (Ozaki v. Ass'n of Apartment Owners of Discovery Bay, 87 Hawaiʻi 273 (App. 1998)).

Wrongful death. HRS § 663-3 allows damages "with reference to the pecuniary injury and loss of love and affection," including loss of society, companionship, consortium, and marital, filial, and parental care, for "the surviving spouse, reciprocal beneficiary, children, father, mother, and ... any person wholly or partly dependent upon the deceased person." The estate recovers the reasonable expenses of the last illness and burial. Dependents may recover loss of love and affection as well as financial loss (Lealaimatafao v. Woodward-Clyde Consultants, 75 Haw. 544 (1994)).

Survival action. HRS § 663-7 preserves the decedent's cause of action for the estate; HRS § 663-8 adds the decedent's future earnings in excess of the decedent's own maintenance and provision for family and dependents.

What evidence do we need to prove a Hawaiʻi asbestos case?

You do not need to gather everything before calling. The diagnosis and a starting point on the work history are enough to begin.

Evidence	Why it helps	What if you do not have it?
Pathology / diagnosis records	Establishes mesothelioma or other asbestos disease; the foundation of the case.	We obtain records directly from treating providers with your signed authorization.
Employment history	Identifies worksites, time periods, and trades — the starting point for exposure reconstruction.	A general history ("Pearl Harbor, late 1970s through retirement") is enough to start. We pull Social Security earnings records, union records, and shipyard records.
Military records (DD-214, ship history)	Critical for Navy and other veterans; supports VA claims and identifies shipboard exposure.	We obtain DD-214s and service records through formal requests.
Coworker / family witness statements	Confirms product handling, plant conditions, and exposure pathways.	Often developed during the case; not needed at intake.
Product identification	Names the manufacturers whose products caused the exposure.	This is our work, not yours. Our Hawaiʻi database often identifies likely products from the worksite alone.
Union records, invoices, purchase orders	Documents historical product purchases and use patterns at the worksite.	We obtain these through our historical research and through litigation discovery.

You do not need to know the product names. You do not need old paperwork in a box. A phone call with the diagnosis and the basic work history is enough to start.

How does Hawaiʻi divide responsibility when many asbestos companies were involved?

This is the area of Hawaiʻi law most families have never heard of, and it matters.

When the Hawaiʻi legislature reshaped its tort system in 1986, it abolished joint and several liability in most cases but kept it for named categories, including toxic and asbestos-related torts and strict and products liability torts. In those cases, any company found liable can be made to pay the whole judgment, not just its own share.

Most of the original asbestos manufacturers — Johns Manville, Owens Corning, Babcock & Wilcox, A.P. Green, Eagle-Picher, and many others — are in bankruptcy. A solvent company found liable in a Hawaiʻi asbestos case can still be responsible for the full judgment, reduced by what other companies have paid in settlements. Trust payments are made separately, though a defendant may argue that they also reduce what it owes.

In other personal-injury cases, Hawaiʻi keeps joint and several liability for economic damages — medical bills, lost wages, lost earning capacity. A State or county agency, though, pays only its own share.

Legal detail: comparative negligence, joint and several liability, and settlement credits

Modified comparative fault for negligence. HRS § 663-31 bars recovery only where the claimant's negligence is greater than the aggregate negligence of the defendants; otherwise damages are reduced in proportion.

Pure comparative fault in strict products liability. Hao v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 69 Haw. 231 (1987): "pure comparative negligence principles apply to strict products liability claims"; a smoker found 51% responsible kept his reduced award (following Armstrong v. Cione, 69 Haw. 176 (1987)).

Joint and several liability. HRS § 663-10.9 abolished joint and several liability except: (1) economic damages in actions for injury or death; (2) economic and noneconomic damages in actions involving intentional torts, environmental pollution, "(C) Toxic and asbestos-related torts," aircraft accidents, "(E) Strict and products liability torts," and certain motor vehicle torts; and (3) noneconomic damages against a tortfeasor found 25% or more negligent in other injury cases. Under HRS § 663-10.5, a government entity is liable only for its own percentage share.

Settlement credits and releases. Under HRS § 663-15.5, a release given in good faith reduces the claims against the other tortfeasors "in the amount stipulated by the release ... or in the amount of the consideration paid for it, whichever is greater," and discharges the settling party from contribution claims; the court decides good faith on petition. Whether asbestos trust payments are credited this way has not been decided by a Hawaiʻi appellate court.

Causation in toxic tort cases. In Patrickson v. Dow Chem. Co., SCWC-22-0000687 (Haw. Sept. 21, 2026) (for publication), the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court held that "the appropriate approach to causation in toxic tort cases is the one set out in comment g to section 26 of the Restatement (Third) of Torts": (1) exposure to the agent, (2) general causation, and (3) specific causation. Expert testimony is required, but the court declined to require experts to quantify the exposure level or dose, and it declined to adopt the "frequency, regularity, and proximity" test used in asbestos litigation, calling it "merely a version of the substantial factor test." The general substantial-factor test of Mitchell v. Branch, 45 Haw. 128 (1961) (Restatement of Torts § 431), was used in earlier asbestos cases such as Hao. Expert testimony is admitted under Hawaiʻi Rule of Evidence 702.

How trust claims, lawsuits, and benefits can work together

A Hawaiʻi mesothelioma family may pursue several tracks. When each is filed is decided case by case with our trial team, and some of them affect each other.

Track	What it does	How long it takes
Asbestos bankruptcy trust claims	Pays compensation from the trusts established by manufacturers that went bankrupt. A defendant in the lawsuit may argue that trust payments reduce what it owes.	Often months.
Civil lawsuit (product and premises)	Pursues the solvent manufacturers and private facility owners for economic damages, pain and suffering (no cap in asbestos cases), and punitive damages where the evidence supports them.	Often 12–24 months; many cases settle along the way.
Benefits (FECA / Longshore / workers' comp / VA / SSDI)	Monthly support and medical care. FECA, Longshore, and Hawaiʻi workers' comp must be repaid from a civil recovery; VA and FECA for the same disease generally require choosing one; SSDI is for workers under full retirement age and can be reduced by workers' comp. A trust or civil recovery doesn't reduce VA disability.	Varies by program.

Hawaiʻi shipyard, Navy, and federal-facility exposure

For many Hawaiʻi families the exposure happened at a federal facility. The United States is not sued as the owner of these sites; the claims are against the companies whose asbestos products were used there, and benefits depend on who employed the worker.

• Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard — the Pacific Fleet's main maintenance and overhaul yard since 1908, run by the Navy. Its civilian workforce are federal employees covered by FECA. Employees of private ship-repair contractors working in the yard may be covered by the Longshore Act. Sailors whose ships were overhauled there may qualify for VA benefits.
• Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam — combined Air Force and Navy installation since 2010.
• Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi (Kāneʻohe Bay) — the major Marine Corps installation in the Pacific.
• Schofield Barracks — home of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division.
• Fort Shafter — headquarters of U.S. Army Pacific.
• Wheeler Army Airfield — historic Army aviation facility on Oʻahu.
• Tripler Army Medical Center — Army medical center in Honolulu.

Veterans who served at these facilities or aboard ships may qualify for VA service-connected disability. The VA has no automatic presumption for asbestos diseases, but it treats in-service asbestos exposure as likely for many Navy ratings; a claim still needs a diagnosis and a doctor's opinion linking the disease to service. Active-duty service members cannot sue the United States for in-service injuries. A household member's own disease is a separate injury, and any claim against the United States would go through the Federal Tort Claims Act, which requires first filing a written claim with the federal agency within two years. Social Security disability is for workers under full retirement age.

What happens after you call?

A free case review is a conversation, not a commitment to file a lawsuit.

1. First call. You tell us what you know. Diagnosis, work history in general terms, family situation. There is no charge and no obligation.
2. Records gathering. With your signed authorization, we obtain medical records, employment records, military records, and Social Security earnings histories. You do not need to track these down.
3. Exposure reconstruction. We compare the work history against the trusts' 269 Hawaiʻi entries and our records, and identify likely products and defendants.
4. Claim path review. We sit down (in person, by phone, or by video) and walk through which lawsuits, trust claims, and benefits the evidence supports.
5. Retention. If you decide to move forward, we sign a contingent-fee agreement. No fee unless we recover for your family.
6. Filing. When each trust claim, benefit application, and lawsuit is filed is decided case by case with our trial team, always within each applicable deadline.
7. Resolution. Trust claims often resolve within months. Lawsuits often resolve within 12–24 months, many through settlement along the way.

Call 833-4-ASBESTOS for a free case review.

How Hawaiʻi's laws may work in practice

Joseph is a 73-year-old retired pipefitter from ʻAiea, Oʻahu. From 1973 through 2010 he worked for the Navy as a civilian pipefitter at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard — primarily on submarine maintenance and overhaul, with stretches on surface ship work. His daily work brought him into direct contact with asbestos-containing insulation on submarine propulsion piping and steam systems, gaskets and packing on valves and pumps, and refractory materials in propulsion plant components. He worked on submarines in dry dock, tearing out old insulation and installing new lagging, often in tight confined spaces. In November 2025 he developed a persistent cough and abdominal pain. In February 2026 a diagnostic laparoscopy with biopsy confirmed peritoneal mesothelioma of the epithelioid subtype.

What this could mean for Joseph's family. To be safe, Joseph should count his two years from his February 2026 diagnosis. The asbestos trusts recognize Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on at least eight lists, including Johns-Manville, so trust claims may be available. His civil case targets the solvent manufacturers and suppliers whose products he handled; the Navy, his employer, is not a defendant. Because Hawaiʻi keeps joint and several liability in asbestos cases, any one manufacturer found liable can be made to pay the full judgment, reduced by other companies' settlements, and the $375,000 limit on pain and suffering does not apply. As a Navy civilian employee, Joseph is covered by FECA, not the Longshore Act; FECA must be repaid from his civil recovery. Because he is past full retirement age, Social Security disability is not available to him. His wife and children lived with the dust on his work clothes for decades. As part of our representation, we offer free asbestos health screening to family members of every client who may have been exposed at home. The screening is a chest X-ray read by a B-reader, with a CT scan if needed; it looks for asbestos-related changes in the lungs and isn't a diagnosis or a reliable way to find mesothelioma early. If a family member is later diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, they may have their own claims against the manufacturers and trusts. If Joseph passes away during the case, his own case continues through his estate, and his family has two years from his death to bring a wrongful-death claim.

Legal analysis of this hypothetical

Limitations. HRS § 657-7: two years from accrual under the discovery rule (Yamaguchi, 65 Haw. 84). To be safe, February 2028. A strict-liability count can accrue earlier than a negligence count (Iida, 854 F. Supp. 702), which is another reason to file well before then.

Pleading theory. Strict products liability (pure comparative fault under Hao v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 69 Haw. 231 (1987); no state-of-the-art evidence on the seller's knowledge under Johnson v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc., 69 Haw. 287 (1987)) and negligence (modified comparative fault under HRS § 663-31). Joint and several liability under HRS § 663-10.9(2)(C) and (E). Punitive damages if the evidence meets the Guieb v. Guieb (Haw. 2025) standard. Defendants that supplied equipment to Navy specifications may raise the government-contractor defense (Boyle, 487 U.S. 500) and remove the case to federal court.

Causation. Exposure, general causation and specific causation under Patrickson v. Dow Chem. Co., SCWC-22-0000687 (Haw. Sept. 21, 2026), proved product by product with expert testimony; no dose figure is required.

Damages. Medical expenses at reasonable value (Bynum v. Magno, 106 Hawaiʻi 81 (2004)), subject to any lien under HRS § 663-10; lost earnings; pain and suffering with no § 663-8.7 limit (asbestos and products torts are excluded). Settlements reduce the claim under HRS § 663-15.5.

Federal coordination. FECA is Joseph's exclusive remedy against the United States (5 U.S.C. § 8116(c)); the FECA claim is due within three years of his awareness that the disease is work-related (§ 8122(b)); § 8132 requires a refund of FECA benefits from the civil recovery after costs and fees. No LHWCA (33 U.S.C. § 903(b)); no VA claim (no military service); no SSDI (past full retirement age).

Post-death framework. The estate continues Joseph's claim under HRS § 663-7, with his own deadline and any punitive damages; his wife and children have a wrongful-death claim under HRS § 663-3 for financial loss and loss of love and affection, due within two years of his death.

Household members. No Hawaiʻi appellate decision on an employer's or premises owner's duty to a worker's household was found; a family member's own claims would be against the manufacturers and trusts, and any claim against the United States would go through the FTCA.

This example is general. Every case depends on the diagnosis, exposure history, dates, defendants, applicable law, and available evidence.

Why families choose our firm

Our firm has recovered over $400 million for asbestos clients nationally. Our Hawaiʻi work draws on the asbestos trusts' 269 Hawaiʻi entries across 50 communities, from 17 trusts, and on our database of more than 200,000 exposure sites nationally.

• No investigation lag. We often know on day one which trusts recognize your worksite. Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, Maui Electric's Kahului plant, Honolulu Iron Works, and the historic Hawaiian sugar and pineapple operations are on many trusts' lists.
• Built for Hawaiʻi law. Strict products liability and negligence claims pleaded together, with Hawaiʻi's asbestos joint-and-several rule in mind. Punitive damages pleaded where the historical record supports them.
• Trust, civil, and federal benefits coordinated case by case with our trial teams: FECA for Navy and other federal civilians, Longshore for private ship-repair contractors, Hawaiʻi workers' comp, VA disability for veterans, and Social Security disability for workers under full retirement age.
• Filing during life. Filing while the diagnosed worker can still testify preserves the strongest evidence. Call as soon as possible after diagnosis.
• Remote case handling. You do not need to come to our office. Most of our Hawaiʻi clients meet with us by phone and video. Documents are signed electronically. We travel to you when in-person meetings matter.
• No fee unless we recover. Contingent fee. Hawaiʻi lets the winning side recover its court costs, and a family that turns down a formal settlement offer and then does no better at trial can be ordered to pay the costs the other side incurred after the offer. We discuss every settlement offer with the family before anyone responds to it.

Learn more about our firm and asbestos database