We're sorry for your loss. If someone you love died of mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis or another disease, and you've started to wonder whether asbestos was behind it, this page is for you. It covers how to tell whether asbestos may have played a part, how long a family has to act, the first steps worth taking, and what your family may be able to recover. You don't need to have any of it figured out before you call.
Why I started this firm
I lost my father and both of my mother's parents to cancer, and for years none of us suspected asbestos.
My grandfather Roy was a World War II veteran and a gifted mechanic who taught me to do a brake job in his garage. He had breathed asbestos for decades, aboard ships lined with asbestos insulation during his Army service and from the brakes and clutches he worked on every day. When I was 19, he was hospitalized with severe pain and diagnosed with an untreatable cancer. Three days later he was gone. He was a smoker, so no one looked for any other cause.
My grandmother Terry ran asbestos-insulated ovens in a computer chip factory, and every week she washed Roy's dusty work clothes. When she was diagnosed with lung cancer, everyone blamed her smoking. She died with almost nothing.
My father Jerry worked in a titanium foundry in the 1950s, surrounded by asbestos-lined equipment no one warned him about. Decades later, his doctors found a tumor the size of a grapefruit and gave him three months. He fought for nine, long enough to watch a video of my law school graduation. He died a few weeks before I learned I'd passed the bar.
I only understood what had happened after I became a lawyer. The first case I worked on was for the family of a pipefitter who had died of mesothelioma, and as I researched the products that killed him, I realized the same materials had been in my own family's lives. By then it was far too late to do anything for them. That's the reason this firm exists: so that other families find out while they can still act. You can read more of my family's story here.
Could asbestos have caused your loved one's death?
Families often don't make the connection, for the same reasons mine didn't:
- The death certificate doesn't mention asbestos. Most don't. It may say "lung cancer," "respiratory failure" or "COPD." What matters for a claim is the medical diagnosis and the exposure history, not the wording on the certificate.
- They smoked. Smoking doesn't rule out an asbestos claim. Asbestos and smoking together multiply the risk of lung cancer, and smokers and their families file trust claims and lawsuits every day.
- The exposure was decades earlier. Asbestos diseases usually appear 20 to 50 years after the first exposure, often long after retirement, so no one thinks back to a job in the 1960s or 1970s.
- They never worked with asbestos. Many people were exposed without handling it: working near other trades, serving in the military, or breathing dust brought home on a family member's work clothes.
Asbestos causes mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, and cancers of the throat, stomach, colon and ovaries. If your loved one died of one of these and worked in construction, shipyards, refineries, power plants, the military, or another trade that used asbestos, or lived with someone who did, it's worth asking.
How long does a family have?
Less time than most people expect. In most states, a family has between one and three years after the death to file a claim. A few states start the clock later: in California, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, it generally runs from when the family learned, or should have learned, that asbestos caused the death, and in Kentucky it runs from the appointment of the estate's representative. You can look up your state's rules in our guide to asbestos laws by state.
But we want to be honest with you. If your loved one died many years ago, the time to file has most likely passed. That's what happened to my family. We hear from families every week who lost someone decades ago, and we wish we could help them all. If you aren't sure where you stand, call us. We'll tell you plainly, even when the answer is no.
If the death was recent, or you've only just learned asbestos may have been involved, please don't wait. The deadline may already be running.
First steps
- Get copies of the death certificate. You'll need certified copies for nearly everything that follows.
- Gather the medical records. Ask the hospital and doctors for records of the final illness, especially any pathology reports and imaging. Hospitals often keep tissue samples from biopsies and surgeries for years; ask them to keep anything they still have.
- Write down where your loved one worked. List every job, ship, plant and base you can remember, roughly when, and what the work involved. Ask siblings, old coworkers and friends. You don't need product names to start; a job title and a place are enough.
- Request the Social Security earnings record. It lists every employer, year by year, and often fills in jobs the family has forgotten. Families can request it from the Social Security Administration with form SSA-7050.
- Find the military discharge papers. If your loved one served, the DD-214 shows the branch, dates and duties. Copies are available from the National Archives.
- Keep the old papers. Pay stubs, union cards, tax returns, letters and work photos can all help prove where someone worked.
What your family may be able to recover
Several kinds of claims can be brought at the same time, and one doesn't reduce another.
- Asbestos trust claims. Many of the companies that made asbestos products went bankrupt and set up trusts to pay the people they harmed, including families after a death. Trust claims don't require a lawsuit or a court appearance, and they don't require opening an estate. How asbestos trust claims work.
- A wrongful death lawsuit. A family can sue the companies still in business that made or used the products, for the loss of their loved one's support and companionship, and often for what their loved one suffered before death. Asbestos wrongful death lawsuits explained.
- Survivor benefits. Depending on the work and service history, a family may also qualify for VA survivor payments, Social Security survivor benefits, or workers' compensation death benefits.
Who can bring each claim depends on your state. Usually it's the surviving spouse and children, and if both parents have died, their children can often pursue the claim. The wrongful death page covers who can file and who receives the money.
Your own health matters too
If your loved one was exposed to asbestos at work, the people who lived with them may have been exposed too. My grandmother was, from washing my grandfather's work clothes, and so was my mother, who helped her with the laundry as a child. Spouses and children breathed the dust that came home on clothes, hair and tools, sometimes for years.
If that sounds like your family, read what to know if you were exposed. We offer a free asbestos health test to the immediate family members of our clients, so the people who were exposed at home can find out where they stand. The test 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.
How we work with families
We know you're grieving, and we won't add to it. No one at our firm will pressure you to sign anything or call you over and over. We gather the records, reconstruct the work history, find every trust and company responsible, and handle the paperwork. We advance the costs of the case, and you pay no fee unless we recover for your family.
Questions families ask
The death certificate doesn't mention asbestos. Can we still file?
Yes. Death certificates rarely list asbestos. Claims are built on the medical records and the exposure history, and we help gather both.
We don't know where our loved one worked. Is that a problem?
Not usually. Most families start with only a rough idea. The Social Security earnings record, union and military records, and what relatives remember are often enough for us to reconstruct the history.
Will we have to go to court?
Not for trust claims, which are handled entirely on paper. If a lawsuit makes sense, we'll explain what's involved and how little most families end up doing themselves, and the choice is yours.
Both of our parents have passed. Can the children file?
Often, yes. When there's no surviving spouse, the children are usually the ones who can bring the claim. The rules vary by state, and we'll tell you how they apply to your family.
Does it cost anything to find out?
No. The call and the review are free, and if we take your case, there's no fee unless we recover.
Talk to someone who has been where you are
You don't have to sort this out alone, and you don't have to decide anything today. Call 833-4-ASBESTOS or request a free case review. We'll listen, look at what happened, and tell you honestly whether your family has a claim.