Plaintiff

The plaintiff is the person who files a lawsuit asking a court for compensation or other relief. In an asbestos case, the plaintiff is usually the patient diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, or, if the patient has died, a surviving family member or the representative of the estate.

Origin

From the Old French plaintif, meaning 'complaining,' rooted in the Latin plangere, 'to lament.' The word entered English legal usage in the 14th century to describe the party bringing a grievance before a court.

Significance in Asbestos Context

If you file an asbestos lawsuit, you are the plaintiff, and the case will be captioned in your name (for example, Smith v. Johns-Manville). As plaintiff, you carry the burden of proving you were exposed to a defendant's asbestos-containing product and that the exposure caused your disease, which is why your legal team will gather your work history, medical records, pathology reports, and product identification evidence. If the patient has died, the lawsuit is typically brought by a spouse, child, or court-appointed personal representative on behalf of the estate (a wrongful death or survival action), and that person becomes the plaintiff. Being a plaintiff does not usually require frequent court appearances. Most of the process involves giving a deposition, providing documents, and reviewing settlement offers with your attorneys.

Example Sentence

As the plaintiff, the retired pipefitter was asked in his deposition to identify every jobsite where he had worked with insulation products.

Related Terms

Defendant, Complaint, Deposition, Personal Representative, Wrongful Death Action, Burden of Proof

Notes

• Start a written timeline of every job, jobsite, and product you remember being exposed to. This is one of the most valuable things a plaintiff can give their legal team.
• Preserve pay stubs, union records, Social Security earnings statements, military DD-214, and any photographs from worksites; these help prove exposure decades after the fact.
• If the patient is seriously ill, ask the attorney about a 'preservation deposition' or expedited trial setting. Many jurisdictions give priority to living mesothelioma plaintiffs.
• If the patient has already died, the family generally must open an estate and have a personal representative appointed before a lawsuit can be filed in the plaintiff's name.
• Statutes of limitation (filing deadlines) begin to run at diagnosis or death; ask your attorney how much time you have in your state.