Wrongful-Death Asbestos Claims Scranton

Michael Schafle, Esq. provides Wrongful-Death Asbestos Claims in Scranton, PA. Two separate claims usually move together after an asbestos death in Scranton. A wrongful-death claim compensates the surviving family for their losses, and a survival action recovers what the worker himself could have claimed had he lived, the pain, the medical bills from mesothelioma treatment, and lost earnings. Pennsylvania law, specifically 42 Pa.C.S. § 8301 for wrongful death and § 8302 for the survival action, lets both run under one case so the family files once, not twice.

Step 1 is gathering the work history. Many Lackawanna County men were exposed decades ago in the anthracite mines, the rail yards near what is now Steamtown National Historic Site, the textile and silk mills, and the powerhouses and boiler rooms that ran the valley. Asbestos was wrapped on pipes, packed into boiler insulation, and woven into gaskets and brake linings. Step 2 is matching that history to the manufacturers. Step 3 is checking the asbestos bankruptcy trusts, more than 60 companies set aside funds, roughly $30 billion total according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office">, and a family can often recover from several trusts plus any solvent defendants. Step 4 is filing before the 2-year deadline. Step 5 is distributing the recovery to the heirs the law names.

The decision of which path fits depends on what the family has. If a worker died recently and the exposure job is documented, a union card, a pension record, a VA file, co-workers who remember him in the asbestos-heavy trades, a full wrongful-death and survival case usually makes sense. If the records are thin and the death was long ago, trust-fund claims alone may still recover meaningful amounts with far less litigation; the trade-off is a smaller award in exchange for a faster, simpler path. A diagnosis confirmed by a Scranton-area pathologist or oncologist strengthens either route, because the link between asbestos and this cancer is well documented.

Families in Hill Section, South Side, West Side, North Scranton, Petersburg, Tripp Park, Pine Brook, and East Mountain do not need to come to an office. The estate paperwork, the death certificate, the letters of administration from the Lackawanna County Courthouse, the medical records, can all be reviewed at a kitchen table. There is no charge to go through a loved one's work history and explain whether a claim exists.