In the early part of the 20th century, asbestos was regarded as a wonder product. Industry found uses for it in construction, shipbuilding, power plants, auto parts, and much more. Many years later, we began to learn just how dangerous and harmful that wonder product could be.
Each year, thousands of personal injury claims and lawsuits are filed over asbestos-related health problems. Dozens of companies that made and sold asbestos-containing products have gone bankrupt. The human toll in suffering and death is incalculable.
We start with a brief review of the history of asbestos claims and litigation. Today, many asbestos liabilities are resolved through asbestos trust fund claims. Most often, that's the quickest route to compensation, if your claims qualify. We'll explain what those are and how they work. From there, we'll walk you through the stages of a typical civil lawsuit, and discuss why it's a good idea to be represented by legal counsel in an asbestos-injury case.
A History of Asbestos Claims and Litigation
In the early 1960's, medicine established a causal link between asbestos and cancer. The link was especially strong in workers with a history of on-the-job exposures to asbestos-containing products.
Construction workers, firefighters, military servicemembers, shipyard workers, and others were directly exposed to asbestos fibers (often without knowing it) every day. Over time, doctors and scientists learned that family members of asbestos workers might develop illnesses linked to asbestos, through secondary or "take home" exposures.
Countless studies have shown links between asbestos exposure and a range of medical conditions. Among the most common are lung cancer, asbestosis, cancers of the stomach and digestive tract, and mesothelioma. These conditions can be disabling or even fatal. Tissue damage caused by asbestos is often permanent.
To make matters worse, asbestos-related illnesses often have a long latency period. In other words, it might take years—even decades—for the symptoms of asbestos-related diseases to appear. By then, it's often too late. Much of the damage has been done.
The first mesothelioma lawsuit was filed in 1966. Because it's a type of product liability litigation, any company in the chain of distribution can face asbestos liabilities. Today, those liabilities total in the billions of dollars. Billions more in claims are expected.
Asbestos case filings show little sign of slowing down. Thousands of new claims and lawsuits are filed every year. Like most personal injury cases, the overwhelming majority of asbestos claims settle without going to trial.
Because asbestos mass tort litigation been going on for so long, many courts have developed special procedures to deal with them. The San Francisco superior court, for example, has set up a special asbestos claims department to handle pretrial matters in asbestos suits.
Asbestos Bankruptcy Trust Fund Claims
Many companies that make or sell asbestos-containing products have gone bankrupt, financially overwhelmed by huge numbers of legal claims. As a condition of granting relief, federal bankruptcy courts usually require these companies to set up bankruptcy trust funds to assure a source of payment for future claims. As of February 2025, the various trust funds had more than $30 billion in funds available for claim payouts.
When your asbestos-mesothelioma claim is against one of these bankrupt companies, a trust fund claim will be your only route to compensation. Because the company went bankrupt (and is probably out of business), suing in court isn't an option.
If you have claims against more than one bankrupt company, you'll probably have more than one trust fund claim. Streamlined claim-processing procedures mean that a properly filed trust fund claim can be paid and resolved more quickly and efficiently than a lawsuit.
Several factors will impact your trust fund claim timeline, including:
- the length and complexity of your health history
- when, where, and how you were exposed to asbestos-containing products
- whether you can prove that your illness or condition was caused by asbestos exposure
- how many trust funds will be involved in your claims
- how many claims are pending against those trust funds, and
- the amounts the trust funds have available for payment of claims.
Your lawyer (yes, you should hire a lawyer) can tell you more. After you've hired counsel, expect them to take some time to investigate your health and exposure histories, gather medical records and other information, calculate your damages, and prepare your claims for filing. Depending on the circumstances, this process could take from several weeks to several months.
Once your trust fund claims are in order and your lawyer files them, it will take the trust fund administrators time to review them. They might have questions or need more information that your lawyer will provide. In a typical asbestos-mesothelioma case (lung cancer cases will take longer), you probably can expect to start receiving payments within six months after your claims are filed—give or take a couple of months.
Chances are you won't get all the money you're entitled to in one lump sum. The trust funds will usually pay you over time. Your lawyer will know more, based on the trust funds that are involved.
Timeline When You File a Lawsuit
When the company that's responsible for your asbestos illness hasn't gone bankrupt, a trust fund claim won't be an option. In that event, you'll bring an ordinary insurance claim (or lawsuit) against the company. What sort of timeline are you looking at if you have to sue? Here are some rough ideas.
General Timeline of a Lawsuit
One to two years is the length of a typical injury-related lawsuit that makes it all the way to a court trial. A lawsuit usually proceeds through several stages:
- developing and investigating the case
- filing the personal injury complaint and serving the defendant
- gathering evidence (the “discovery phase" of a case)
- preparation for trial (while keeping an eye on settlement prospects), and
- trial.
When a case is first filed, the court usually assigns a date at least six months out for a “case management conference” or similar meeting. At this conference, your attorney and the defendant's attorneys meet with the judge to discuss whether the case is ready for trial. If it is, the judge sets a trial date, likely three to six months (maybe more) down the road. If the case isn't ready, a date for a follow-up conference is set.
As the trial date approaches, the defendants will file motions for summary judgment asking to be dismissed from the case. These and other pretrial matters take time, and a snag in any one of them can result in a trial delay. Other issues can pop up on the court's calendar that result in your case being postponed.
Many cases settle shortly before the trial date. Some settle during or even after trial. When there's no settlement, once the trial is complete, post-trial appeals are likely. An appeal might add another year or more to the overall timeline of the case.
Seriously Ill Plaintiffs Might Be Able to Go Faster
Courts generally handle civil cases on a first-come, first-served basis, taking them in the order in which they're filed. Everyone wants their case to move quickly but as a rule, courts don't show preference for one over another. That said, courts have ways to "fast track" terminally ill asbestos claimants' cases to trial more quickly.
When a terminally ill asbestos-mesothelioma plaintiff sues, their case might get set for trial within less than a year after filing. A year might not sound like an "expedited" timeline, but considering how overcrowded most court calendars are, it is.
Why You Need an Attorney to Move Your Case Along
It's important that you have an attorney on your side if you're bringing an asbestos-mesothelioma lawsuit. This is especially true if your health is deteriorating due to mesothelioma or another asbestos-related illness. Here are some of the specific ways an attorney can help.
Preparing your case. Perhaps the most valuable thing an asbestos attorney can provide is information—collecting and putting together the kinds of documentation it would be impossible (or very expensive) for you to compile on your own. For instance, by doing a full investigation of your work history, your lawyer will identify the types of asbestos-containing products to which you were probably exposed.
If you worked on jobsites that employed many people, such as commercial building construction, refinery or industrial sites, or in the military, your attorney might already have information on what was used at the site. You might not know what brand of fireproofing you scraped off of support beams or joists. But your attorney might represent another client who worked on the building a few years earlier and remembers what was sprayed on.
Hiring and working with expert witnesses. Finding and hiring experts is a critical step in preparing an asbestos case. Your attorney will retain experts to review your medical, education, and work records for issues regarding exposures to asbestos-containing products, the cause of your illness, the care and treatment you received, needs for future medical care, and your likely prognosis.
Should causation problems like those described above arise, your counsel will work with experts to try to overcome those problems.
Pretrial procedures. In an asbestos-mesothelioma case, there will probably be several defendants. Each defendant has the right to take your deposition, ask you written questions (called "interrogatories") about your exposure, and ask for medical proof in the form of records and related documents. Most defendants will file motions for summary judgment, asking the court to dismiss your case without a trial.
Your attorney will coordinate depositions, produce evidence, and respond to legal challenges for you. Just as important, your attorney will also recognize when a defendant is asking for information it's not entitled to, when defendants make procedural mistakes, and what a reasonable settlement offer looks like.
In short, an experienced attorney will protect your rights at every stage in the proceedings, and will prevent the defendants from taking advantage of you.
The Role of Insurance in an Asbestos Settlement
While insurance issues aren't likely to delay the progress of your case through the court system, they will affect—and could potentially slow down—how your asbestos settlement is processed.
Your Medical Insurance
When your health insurer has paid for your diagnosis and treatment, it's likely to put a medical lien on any settlement you receive. That means the insurance company wants to be reimbursed by the defendants for the money it spent taking care of you. A skilled asbestos-mesothelioma attorney will negotiate with the insurance company over the amount of the lien.
The Defendant's Liability Insurance
When a defendant makes a settlement in a lawsuit, it's usually paid by their insurance company. (Learn about the role of insurance in settling injury claims.)
Sometimes the defendant won't have any liability insurance, or its policy limit won't be enough to pay all outstanding asbestos claims. If that happens, the defendant probably won't have the money to pay you. Your attorney can go back to court to try to collect, but the defendant might be forced into bankruptcy.
Get Help With Your Asbestos Case
Even though many asbestos claim processes have been streamlined, don't confuse efficiency with simplicity. There often are factual and legal issues that can delay or even kill asbestos claims and lawsuits. Long story short: An asbestos claim isn't the place for amateurs, and it's not something you want to try on your own. Without experienced counsel on your side, you stand little chance of getting a fair settlement.
If you think you have an asbestos-mesothelioma claim, your first call should be to an attorney. Here's how to find a lawyer who's right for you and your case.