Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filing

Quick answer

A lawsuit is brought against the companies that made and sold the asbestos products — not against the employer in most cases, and not against the government
Most cases name several defendants, because most work histories involve several manufacturers' products
Pennsylvania courts can expedite a case where a living mesothelioma plaintiff is involved, which materially changes the timeline
Filing does not commit you to a trial. Most asbestos cases resolve before one
Deadlines apply and generally run from diagnosis, not exposure. Call (610) 822-7673 rather than assuming the date has passed

Allentown is the Lehigh County seat and, for most of the twentieth century, it was a truck town. Mack opened its first Allentown plant in an old foundry on the south side in 1905, added assembly plants across the city, and moved its world headquarters here; the bulldog on the radiator was built in Allentown until production was consolidated at Macungie in the late 1980s. Alongside it stood Western Electric’s Allentown Works, opened in 1948, and Lehigh Structural Steel’s fabricating yards on the Lehigh River. A filing starts with which of those someone worked at, and in which department.

Filing is the step people picture when they imagine a case, and it is usually the shortest part of the story. Everything that determines whether a lawsuit is worth filing happens beforehand: establishing the diagnosis, reconstructing the work history, and identifying whose products were on the job. By the time a complaint is drafted, the substantive questions have largely been answered.

The defendants are manufacturers and suppliers — the companies that made the insulation, block, cement, gaskets, packing, and friction products that a person worked around. It is not usually a case against the employer, and where the work was done at a federal installation or aboard ship it is not a case against the government. Most complaints name a group of companies, because most careers put someone near more than one manufacturer's material. Around Allentown, a history at the Mack plants, the Western Electric works, or Lehigh Structural Steel typically implicates a recognisable set of suppliers that sold into those industries from the 1940s into the 1980s.

Timing is the part worth understanding properly. Pennsylvania sets limits on when a claim can be brought, and for asbestos disease those limits generally run from diagnosis rather than from the exposure decades earlier — but exactly when the clock started can itself be contested, and the rule is not the same for a living claimant as for a family bringing a claim after a death. That is a question to put to someone early rather than to settle from a web page.

Against that, courts here can move quickly where the plaintiff is living and ill. Pennsylvania practice allows an asbestos case involving a living mesothelioma plaintiff to be expedited, which is one of the few places where the system genuinely accommodates the medicine. It is also a reason not to wait: the procedural advantages available to a living claimant are not available afterward.

Filing is not a commitment to trial. The large majority of asbestos cases resolve before one, through settlement with some defendants and trust claims against others, often in combination. What filing does is preserve the claim and start a clock that the defendants must answer to. Allentown is the Lehigh County seat, so the county courthouse is in town. Venue follows the defendants rather than the family’s address, though, and Philadelphia’s dedicated asbestos program is frequently available for a Lehigh Valley case. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

The defendants are the makers of the asbestos-containing products in those plants — friction materials for brakes and clutches, gaskets and packing, boiler and furnace insulation — not Mack, Western Electric or their successors. The county courthouse is in town, but venue follows the defendants, and that decision is made once the evidence is in hand.

Call (610) 822-7673

Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filing — fees and costs in Allentown

Consultation and initial case review, at home or at the hospital	$0
Mesothelioma or asbestos claim, handled on contingency	No fee unless there is a recovery — the percentage is agreed in writing before representation begins
Requesting employment, union, and military records on your behalf	Included in the case review

No fee unless there is a recovery. Any fee is a percentage agreed in writing before representation begins.

Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filing — questions, answered

My father built trucks at Mack. Who would a lawsuit be against?

Not Mack, in most cases. A mesothelioma lawsuit names the companies that made asbestos-containing products a person worked with or around, such as brake and clutch materials, gaskets, insulation and packing. Which ones were on his line is what the records establish.

He worked at Western Electric making tubes. Is that an asbestos job?

It can be. Glass working and tube manufacture ran furnaces and ovens, and the heat protection around them commonly contained asbestos. The department and the years are where to start.

Who is actually sued in a Allentown mesothelioma lawsuit?

The manufacturers and suppliers of the asbestos products someone worked around — not, in most cases, the employer, and not the government where the work was military or at a federal installation.

Is there a deadline to file?

Yes. Pennsylvania time limits generally run from diagnosis rather than from the exposure, and they differ for a living claimant and for a family filing after a death. When the clock started can be disputed, so it is worth checking rather than assuming.

Does filing mean we go to trial?

Usually not. Most asbestos cases resolve before trial, frequently through a combination of settlements and bankruptcy trust claims. Filing preserves the claim and obliges the defendants to respond.