Emily spoke with Matt Morton, from Lipsitz, Ponterio & Comerford, LLC Attorneys at Law to talk about steel workers diagnosed with mesothelioma. He says they have represented some really special families. He says, “One person that comes to mind is a gentleman who worked in the fuel department at Bethlehem Steel. He helped construct new areas of the plant, like the galvanizing mill, like the BOF when it was built in the 1960’s. He worked in the open hearts, he worked in the new 13 inch bar mill and people worked in these different areas at Bethlehem Steel had massive exposures to asbestos in the 50’s and the 1960’s, and 1970’s. We consider ourselves very honored and lucky to represent these hard-working families of Western New York.”
What is the first step for someone who comes to you? Matt says usually what typically happens is one of these people get the unfortunate diagnosis of mesothelioma or lung cancer and they know they were exposed to asbestos, it’s no secret. He says, “They call us and we typically go to our clients and we explain to them three different legal remedies. Unfortunately, we can’t give everyone their health back, we just can’t so the law provides three different remedies. We can do a lawsuit, we can do some claims against some asbestos bankruptcy trusts and potentially a workers compensation claim for the widow.”
He says the lawsuit requires our clients to give a deposition where they talk about their life and their past and how they believe they were exposed to asbestos. So, they have to be able to talk about where at the steel plants they worked, what kind of work they did, what products they worked with. He says we are lucky in New York there is a special statue that allows us to get these cases done in a year which is very quick in the legal world. A typical lawsuit, he says, takes about five or six years in New York and we can get it done in a year.
When should someone reach out to you? Matt says, “The sooner the better. Unfortunately, these are aggressive cancers that our clients have. The sooner we can get into door and talk to families, the better it is for them and the better likelihood for successes for their cases.
Matt says, “In addition to providing the legal remedies, we have a good relationship with Roswell. We can get them in contact with the right people at Roswell to help them in the right course of treatment to help them anyway we can whether that be chemotherapy, immunotherapy, surgery, radiation. This new immunotherapy that Roswell is coming out with, they are vey successful compared to the old chemotherapy treatments and they are really helping people with mesothelioma and lung cancer.”
You can call them at 716-849-0701.
For more information visit lipsitzponterio.com.
