Home and Bedside Consultations Scranton

Michael Schafle, Esq. provides Home And Bedside Consultations in Scranton, PA.

A home or bedside consultation exists because a mesothelioma diagnosis often arrives 30 to 50 years after the exposure, when a client is in their 60s, 70s, or 80s and in active treatment.

Sitting in a downtown office waiting room is not realistic for someone on oxygen or recovering from a pleurectomy. Michael Schafle, Esq. drives to the kitchen table in Green Ridge, the row houses of South Side, a second-floor apartment in North Scranton, or a bedside room at a Scranton hospital, the client never leaves the chair they are comfortable in.

The visit is a fact-gathering session, not a sales pitch.

The core of an mesothelioma claim is the work history: where a Lackawanna County tradesman stood, what he handled, and when. Men from this valley were exposed in the anthracite mines, the rail yards, the textile mills, and the powerhouses, and the asbestos showed up in pipe insulation, boiler lagging, brake linings, and joint compound. Step 1 is writing down every job and worksite in order.

Step 2 is matching those years to the products known to contain asbestos, listed by the federal asbestos program. Step 3 is identifying which claims fit, a lawsuit against solvent companies, a filing against one of the asbestos bankruptcy trusts set up under the federal bankruptcy courts, or both. Step 4 is listing the records to collect: the pathology report, employment records, union cards, and Social Security earnings history.

Step 5 is explaining the Pennsylvania deadline out loud so nothing is lost to the clock.

Pennsylvania's statute of limitations for an asbestos injury claim is generally two years, and Pennsylvania courts apply a discovery rule that runs the clock from diagnosis, not from the long-ago exposure, the Pennsylvania two-year limit is confirmed at 42 Pa.C.S. § 5524. That two-year window is the single most important reason a bedside visit happens quickly rather than weeks out.

A wrongful-death claim on behalf of a surviving spouse or children follows a separate track; the distinction between a living claim and a survivor's claim is explained at the table so a family understands which door is still open.

A home visit fits when the client is too ill or too tired to travel, when records are spread across a house and easier to find on-site, or when an adult child from Petersburg or East Mountain wants to sit in and ask questions for a parent. A phone call fits a quick first question, whether there is a case at all, and often comes first, with the in-person visit following once a date is set. Veterans who served and were later exposed on the job may also qualify for a separate VA asbestos benefit, which is reviewed during the same visit.

Hospice and palliative resources through Medicare hospice coverage are noted when relevant, so a family is not sorting that out alone. Consultations reach every corner of the area: Hill Section, West Side, Minooka, Tripp Park, and Pine Brook included.