Asbestos Lawyers

Selecting a Mesothelioma Lawyer or Asbestos Attorney

Finding A Mesothelioma Attorney or Asbestos Lawyer To Meet Your Needs

When you or a loved one has been diagnosed with an asbestos-related injury such as mesothelioma, it may be the first time you have ever considered hiring an attorney. Choosing the right mesothelioma and asbestos lawyer can give you peace of mind during the difficult times of medical treatments, bills and other stressful events.

Lawyers who handle asbestos claims vary widely in their approaches. Many attorneys will offer an initial consultation after which they will be able to evaluate the strength of a case. While this prescreening is often done over the phone, an in-person consult is important and useful as it will enable you to get to know the lawyer, the firm, the types of resources the firm has and how it is likely to handle your asbestos-related disease case.

Key Points To Consider When Choosing a Mesothelioma Lawyer or Asbestos Attorney

Will the firm handle all aspects of your case? It is important to ensure that your prospective attorney will actually file your case and not simply send it off to some other law firm. At Brayton Purcell LLP, we will keep your case, work up your case, and handle any settlement or litigation. We are NOT a referral firm like many of the mesothelioma ad firms you see on TV.

Get the information you desire: An initial consultation with a prospective attorney should be informative — ask frank questions.

Seek legal advice as soon as possible: Contacting an attorney as soon as you have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease or when you know that you have been exposed to asbestos can help preserve a wide range of legal options.

Does the firm have experience with these types of cases? Make sure your prospective attorney has experience in taking asbestos or mesothelioma cases to trial.

Does the firm have the proper resources? Your prospective attorney should have the information and resources needed to help you prove your asbestos claim.

When Should I Contact a Lawyer Regarding Asbestos Exposure?

This question is a particularly important in cases involving toxic substances. Unlike a car wreck, for example, where injuries are often readily apparent, the symptoms of asbestos-related diseases may take decades to develop. Cancers such as mesothelioma may not develop until five to 70 years after the initial exposure.

Asbestos fibers are microscopic and dangerous levels of dust are often not recognizable to the person working with or around asbestos, the person who washes the clothing of a loved one who has worked near other workers using asbestos containing products, but did not himself work directly with asbestos containing products.  Due to their microscopic and invasive nature, harmful exposure to asbestos fibers may occur without a person ever knowing it.

For both legal and medical reasons, as soon as you are aware that you were exposed to products containing asbestos and may be at risk of developing a serious disease, you should consult an experienced lawyer to determine what your legal rights are, and when and how they should best be protected.

Settlement Or Trial? Why Experience Matters.

While we always try to settle our cases for an appropriate amount without the risk and expense of trial, we strongly believe that the best asbestos trial lawyers achieve the best results. Defendants and their attorneys respect and regularly evaluate the trial skills of a plaintiff's lawyer when deciding how to respond to a lawsuit. When defendants know that they are dealing with an experienced mesothelioma attorney who is able to efficiently try a case and obtain a verdict, they are much more likely to be engaged in settlement negotiations.

Lawsuits involving asbestos exposure benefit from a law firm that has experience with jury trials, an understanding of construction and building practices, and keeps up to date with cutting-edge medical science. When it comes time to choosing legal counsel, your attorney of choice should not only have a proven track record in mesothelioma and asbestos litigation, settlement and trials, but he or she should also have a substantial commitment to asbestos and mesothelioma cases as an integral part of his or her practice.

What Is Our Track Record In Mesothelioma and Asbestos Cases?

Our trial attorneys have achieved some of the largest verdicts ever handed down in California in an asbestos case — over $70 million to a retired U.S. Navy machinist's mate suffering from mesothelioma and over $41 million to a retired California plumber also suffering from mesothelioma. We have also obtained the largest asbestos rewards inOregon for asbestosis and Washington for mesothelioma. In Utah, we obtained the only asbestos verdict ever handed down — a $5.2 million verdict for a woman suffering from peritoneal mesothelioma.

While we cannot guarantee the outcome of any case, our attorneys vigorously fight for the rights of our clients. See our record of court successes for a more detailed list of verdicts involving mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and other personal injury claims. We try more asbestos cases than any other plaintiffs firm.

Putting Our Resources to Work

Our legal team has created an extensive computer database of information on asbestos products and manufacturers from around the world. This massive collection runs in excess of 34,000 lineal feet, over 10,000 volumes of depositions and transcripts, and more than 6 million pages of data on asbestos work site conditions, asbestos product identification and other information necessary to maximize the value of a mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, asbestosis or other asbestos-related disease case.

We are able to cross-reference the specifics of a client's mesothelioma or asbestos case with this invaluable evidence previously identified in thousands of cases. This unique ability ensures that your case will be built upon the strongest evidence available to help you achieve the best possible results.

Contact the Lawyers at Brayton Purcell LLP

We would be pleased if you would consider our attorneys when making a decision on whom to hire for your asbestos disease lawsuit. Please don't be fooled into hiring a so-called "mesothelioma firm" from a television commercial. Most of those "firms" are little more than referral services. To find out how we can help you, contact us online or through our main offices in California, Oregon and Utah. We handle mesothelioma and asbestos cases in California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Iowa, and throughout the nation, associating with high-quality local counsel when necessary.