Robins Cloud is powerful enough to tackle your case, but still personal enough to care about you and your family. As a family fighting mesothelioma, you need a law firm that is both strong and caring.
We're here to make your next steps as easy and successful as possible. There is a way to file a mesothelioma lawsuit that works for your life, giving you time with your family and the greatest chance for significant financial compensation.
One of the most important factors in choosing a mesothelioma law firm is the firm’s history of winning and/or settling mesothelioma lawsuits. Robins Cloud has a strong record of wins for our clients.
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Ian CloudFor over twenty-five years, mesothelioma patients and their families have turned to our lawyers to help them pursue justice against the corporations that exposed them to asbestos. We have helped families across the nation, from coast to coast, in nearly all fifty states. Our lawyers are known for successfully taking on the the tough cases that other law firms often shy away from.
What does a “tough” mesothelioma case look like? It could be a mesothelioma case with an out of the ordinary type of asbestos exposure (like wives exposed to asbestos from washing their husband’s clothes, children exposed to asbestos in their homes, or dentists exposed to asbestos when making gold crowns). Or it could be a mesothelioma case against one of the asbestos companies that refuses to offer fair settlements and takes every case to trial. Either way, our lawyers are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work to find the truth and pursue justice for you and your family.
Fill out the form below or call us at 866.517.9520 for a free consultation about your mesothelioma case.
Robins Cloud is an unusual law firm that is powerful enough to tackle your case, but still personal enough to care about you and your family. As a family fighting mesothelioma, you need a law firm that is both strong and caring.
We’re “that kind of law firm.”
One whose lawyers are most comfortable in your living room or at your dining room table. Not the lawyers who are famous for those scary late-night ads that promise easy money. Because if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Instead, we’re the mesothelioma law firm that is recognized both for our stunning verdicts and also for our longstanding relationships with clients. For example, our senior attorneys (even those with their names on the door) routinely give their personal cell phone numbers to our mesothelioma clients. We know this is an incredibly difficult time for you, so we do everything we can to help make dealing with your mesothelioma lawsuit easier for your family. That means working around your schedule and not forcing “office hours” on you when things are already so hard.
We will come to meet you and your family, no matter where you live in the country. We’ll work around your doctor’s appointments and family time, too yes, that’s a lot of Sunday afternoon house calls. But since we know what you’re going through, we want to do whatever we can to ease your burden.
After all, we’ve been on the front lines of mesothelioma litigation for over twenty-five years. Maybe it’s hard to see us sometimes, with all the noisy ads and aggressive mesothelioma marketing. But we’ve been here all along. Unlike some mesothelioma law firms, we’ve actually been moving, shaking, and doing powerful work on behalf of our mesothelioma clients and their families the whole time, too. (Meaning – we have actually been helping families get justice.)
The same things that make us different give us our power. Our lawyers not only work to get you fair compensation in the courtroom, but also care about you and your family outside of the courtroom. We know what you and your family are going through. Our clients come to us in their most difficult times. Most of our mesothelioma clients come to us not for their own financial gain, but because they want to make sure that their family is provided for when they are no longer here to provide for their families. We take this trust seriously. To our lawyers, many of our clients feel like family.
Read what Linda Reinstein, founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), says about hiring a mesothelioma law firm.
In addition to helping with your mesothelioma lawsuit, we offer assistance with other matters related to the costs of health care. We routinely help our clients to resolve medical liens, Medicare and private insurance liens, and veterans’ administration liens.
The period right after being diagnosed with mesothelioma is one of the toughest times in anyone’s life. And we know that’s an understatement. We’re here to make your next steps as easy and successful as possible. Because there really is a way to file a mesothelioma lawsuit that works for your life – giving you the most time possible with your family and the greatest chance for significant and fair financial compensation without the headache, lack of trust, or confusion that may come with the many mesothelioma law firms that will sign your case, but then refer it to someone else for actual legal work.
We’re the kind of law firm that other law firms send their cases to. Because they know that we are not afraid of the hard work that is necessary to see a case to its conclusion.
If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, please call the mesothelioma lawyers at Robins Cloud at 855-794-9771 or use the contact form for a free case consultation.
The law recognizes that mesothelioma victims and their loved ones are entitled to compensation from companies that mine, manufacture or sell products containing asbestos. It has been medically established that exposure to asbestos causes Mesothelioma. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Mesothelioma, it is critically important that you talk to an attorney about asserting a claim against those responsible for your exposure to asbestos. Although, many times, it is not possible to sue an asbestos company for causing mesothelioma, there is a special provision of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that forces asbestos companies to fund a trust to pay claims of those who were injured by their negligent actions. This allows a company to limit their liability to people who have suffered due to their negligence but that fund can become exhausted so it is important to act quickly to protect your right to obtain compensation. Over 30 billion dollars has been set aside in trust funds to compensate victims of asbestos exposure who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma.
The reality is that we don’t see these situations as “tough.” We see these situations as part of our callingto help families struggling with all types of asbestos exposure, including unusual situations, to get the help they need. Call us today at 855-794-9771 or use the contact form for a free case consultation.
Modern Mesothelioma Litigation
The first modern day lawsuit alleging injury caused by asbestos was filed in Texas in 1966. Claude Tomplait filed a lawsuit against 11 manufacturers of insulation products containing asbestos. He had been diagnosed with “pulmonary dust disease”. Of those 11 manufacturers, 5 settled, 5 were dropped from the lawsuit, and the suit proceeded to trial against the last defendant, Fibreboard. Fibreboard won. Mr. Tomplait’s attorney, Ward Stephensen, undeterred by the loss and armed with Dr. Selikoff’s findings, filed another lawsuit on behalf of Clarence Borel in the federal district court in a case styled Clarence Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation, et. al. This case would become one of the most famous asbestos cases ever.
Clarence Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation, et. al.
On October 20, 1969, Clarence Borel filed suit in the Eastern District of Texas seeking $1 million in damages against Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation, Johns-Manville Products Corporation, and nine other asbestos-insulation manufacturers. Mr. Borel, diagnosed with mesothelioma, passed before the case went to trial. After Mr. Borel’s death, his wife filled in his shoes as the Plaintiff. As in the Tomplait case, negligence and breach of warranty had been alleged. However, attorney Stephensen also alleged a strict product liability cause of action alleging the defendants knew that asbestos was dangerous and failed to warn of the known danger. The failure to warn about the known danger rendered the product unreasonably dangerous and, as such, the defendants were strictly liable for the injuries caused by that product.
The case ultimately turned upon William Scheckler’s testimony – given on behalf of defendant Johns-Manville Corporation, a manufacturer of asbestos products. Witness William Schekler was Johns-Manville Corporation’s accident prevention manager. He denied knowing about the danger of asbestos until the release of Dr. Selikoff’s presentation of findings in October of 1964.
If a jury were to believe this, then Johns-Manville would not be responsible for any illness caused by asbestos exposure prior to 1964.
In rebuttal to Mr. Scheckler’s testimony, Attorney Stephenson introduced into evidence over 90 publically available scientific studies documenting a link between asbestos and serious lung disease that had been published before 1940over twenty years before Dr. Selikoff’s famous 1964 presentation. Mr. Scheckler testified that it had not occurred to management that pulmonary disease could occur to workers who were not at fixed positionsimplicitly acknowledging that the asbestos defendant actually did know about the danger. The jury recognized that the asbestos defendant was responsible for Mr. Borel’s injuries and awarded him $79,436, which the asbestos defendant then challenged on appeal.
Link Between Asbestos and Mesothelioma
Since asbestos was first commercially mined at the turn of the 20th century, the asbestos industry has known that exposure to asbestos can cause serious lung impairment and even death. Unfortunately, the manufacturers of asbestos-containing products chose not to warn consumers of the dangers of asbestos for decades.
Litigation regarding the cause of the respiratory disease suffered by asbestos workers was initially confined to the Workman’s Compensation arena. When product liability law was developing and courts were defining its parameters and rules, civil lawsuits were filed alleging that asbestos was a defective product and that the manufacturers were strictly liable for injuries caused by asbestos. Despite overwhelming evidence of the dangers of asbestos, the asbestos industry vigorously defended their position that asbestos did not cause lung disease. Unfortunately, some manufacturers of asbestos-containing products attempt to claim that their asbestos is not harmful to human health. This argument has been universally rejected by every governmental health agency that has addressed this issue.
Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer caused by asbestos. Most mesotheliomas occur in the thin tissue lining that surrounds the lungs, called the pleura. Mesothelioma can also occur in the lining that surrounds the abdomen, called the peritoneum.
Each year, approximately 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma.
Asbestos is a group of mineral fibers that are naturally found in rocks buried underground. In their natural form, asbestos fibers do not pose a risk of harm to human beings. This is because the asbestos fibers are trapped inside rocks and buried underground. Asbestos fibers pose a health hazard only once the rocks are mined. The asbestos fibers are extracted from the rocks, and then the asbestos fibers are put into products to which people will be exposed.
There are six different types of asbestos fibers: chrysotile, amosite, anthophyllite, tremolite, actinolite, and crocidolite. Asbestos fibers are extremely strong, durable, chemical resistant, and heat resistant. At the same time, asbestos fibers are very light. These properties made asbestos fibers a commonly used building material. These same properties make asbestos very dangerous once it enters the human body.
Asbestos was widely used in products and industry. Here are just a few of the applications in which asbestos fibers have been used:
Yes. We have represented several wives and children who developed mesothelioma. In many cases, workers unknowingly carried asbestos fibers home on their clothes. Their wives were exposed to these asbestos fibers when they shook out and washed their work clothes. Their children were exposed to the asbestos fibers when they played with their dads.
Sadly, this all could have been avoided. If companies that used asbestos had simply provided their workers with a change of work clothes, lockers to keep work clothes separate from street clothes, and showers at work rinse off the asbestos fibers, asbestos fibers would not have been carried home. And the workers’ wives and children would not have been exposed to asbestos fibers in their homes.
The same properties that make asbestos such an effective building material make it a health disaster for the workers who were exposed to it. Asbestos fibers are extremely light and thin. This allows them to get into the air and be breathed in by people. And it allows many of the asbestos fibers to bypass the body’s defense systems. Once the asbestos fibers get into the air and are breathed in, their virtual indestructability becomes a problem. Once inside a person’s body, the asbestos fibers can begin to cause diseases like asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma. This is why asbestos is so dangerous.
In September 1973, The 5th Circuit court confirmed Mr. Stephenson's jury award and opined that manufacturers of asbestos were strictly liable and had a duty to warn of foreseeable dangers. The duty to warn extended to all users, including asbestos workers. This is so the person who might be exposed to the asbestos could make an informed decision about the danger and decide if it was worth the risk to work around asbestos.
Attorney Stephenson
Attorney Stephenson, suffering from cancer, slipped into a coma and died the week after the 5th Circuit ruled in his client’s favor. Ironically, witness Sheckler’s wife would also later die of Mesothelioma likely because while doing the laundry. She had inhaled asbestos fibers that had lodged themselves her husband’s clothing.
Asbestos Denials
The tactic of denying knowledge of the danger of asbestos was used by asbestos companies over and over again for the next 15 years. This tactic, often called the “doubt is their product” defense, has since been adopted by other industries attempting to shield themselves from liability for causing consumers to develop cancer. (Most notably, this “doubt” defense has been used by the tobacco industry). In early asbestos cases, this “doubt” defense often won cases for asbestos defendants. This all changed when trial attorney Karl Asch uncovered the “smoking gun” documents that would reveal the asbestos industry’s conspiracy of silence regarding the fact that asbestos was deadly. Karl Asch discovered the Sumner Simpson papers.
The Summer Papers
Due in large part to the discovery of the Sumner Simpson Papers, The 1980s saw an explosion in litigation which put severe pressure on the court systems as the nature and number of claims did not easily lend themselves to classification as class action law suits. Even the Supreme Court weighed in, advising that a legislative solution was appropriate. Over 700,000 people filed claims and asbestos companies were overwhelmed and one by one filed for bankruptcy protection to limit their liability to their injured workers and the general public and resulted in the formation of trust funds to pay workers injured by their exposure to asbestos.