Asbestos Product Liability Lawsuits

Dangerous products don't have to be banned to be sold safely. Gasoline can explode. Rat poison can kill. Yet both are sold every day because consumers know what they're buying and can protect themselves accordingly.

That's the core idea behind product liability law: if a company sells something dangerous without warning of the hazards, they can be held accountable for the harm their product causes.

Asbestos was different. It was odorless, invisible, and deadly. And for decades, the companies that made asbestos products knew it could kill the workers who handled it. They sold it anyway, without a word of warning.

Product liability law gave those workers and their families a way to fight back. The lawsuits that followed compensated victims, but they also did much more. They exposed corporate cover-ups, drove asbestos out of everyday use, and created the legal framework that still protects families today.

That framework exists because one man decided to sue. His name was Clarence Borel, and his case changed everything.

Read his story.

Two Types of Product Defects

In product liability law, a product is "defective" if it's unreasonably dangerous to consumers. For asbestos cases, that defect typically falls into one of two categories.

Failure to Warn

This is the most common theory in asbestos lawsuits, especially for industrial products like insulation, pipe wrap, gaskets, and brake pads.

The law allows companies to sell dangerous products, but only if they clearly warn users about the risks of those products. You see this principle every day: household cleaners contain toxic chemicals, but they come with warning labels explaining the danger. That's the tradeoff. You can sell something hazardous as long as people know what they're getting into and can protect themselves.

Asbestos manufacturers didn't hold up their end of that bargain. They knew their products could cause fatal diseases. They sold them anyway, with no warnings, leaving workers to breathe asbestos dust for years without any idea it was killing them.

When a company knows—or should know—that its product can cause cancer, and fails to provide clear warnings, the product is considered defective even if it was manufactured exactly as designed. And when companies actively concealed the risks or lied about the dangers, as many asbestos manufacturers did, they can face punitive damages on top of compensating victims.

Manufacturing Defect

This theory applies when asbestos ends up in a product that was never supposed to contain it. The product doesn't match its intended design or specifications, making it automatically defective.

The clearest example is talcum powder. Products like Johnson & Johnson's Shower to Shower were marketed as safe for daily use. But talc and asbestos occur together in nature, and many talc-based powders were contaminated with asbestos fibers. Because these products were never supposed to contain asbestos (and were sold as safe) they're defective under a manufacturing defect theory.

Learn more about talcum powder litigation.

The Difference in Practice

Owens-Illinois developed Kaylo in the 1940s as a calcium silicate insulation reinforced with asbestos fibers. Before bringing it to market, the company conducted animal studies to test its safety. The results were damning: company scientists concluded that Kaylo was, in their own words, "a first-class hazard." But they sold it anyway. For decades. With no warnings.

Who Can Be Held Liable?

Asbestos exposure rarely came from a single source. Workers encountered asbestos products from multiple manufacturers, at multiple job sites, over years or decades. The law recognizes this reality. You can hold all responsible parties accountable, not just the company that made one particular product.

Manufacturers. The companies that made asbestos insulation, gaskets, pipe wrap, cement, brake pads, and thousands of other products. They knew the risks and sold their products without warnings. They're the primary targets in most asbestos litigation.

Distributors and Suppliers. The middlemen who moved asbestos products from factories to job sites. If they knew or should have known the products were hazardous and failed to pass along warnings, they share liability.

Premises Owners. Refineries, chemical plants, shipyards, and power plants often knew asbestos was present on their property and did nothing to warn or protect the workers who came through their gates. This is especially important for contractors and temporary workers who didn't control the work environment. Learn more about premises liability claims.

Contractors. Companies that installed, removed, or disturbed asbestos materials, often during shutdowns, renovations, or routine maintenance. If their work practices exposed other workers to asbestos dust, they can be held responsible.

Successor Companies. When companies merge, rebrand, or sell their product lines, legal liability often follows. The original manufacturer may be gone, but the company that acquired their business (and continued profiting from it) can inherit responsibility for the harm caused.

Bankruptcy Trusts. Many of the worst offenders eventually filed for bankruptcy. As part of that process, they were required to establish trust funds to compensate victims. The company may no longer exist, but the trust still pays claims. Learn more about asbestos trust claims.

Every liable party represents another potential source of compensation. Our experienced legal team will investigate your exposure history, identify all responsible parties, and pursue every claim you're entitled to file.

What Compensation Is Available?

Asbestos-related illnesses do more than damage your health. They drain savings, end careers, and reshape families. Product liability lawsuits allow your family to recover compensation for all of that.

Economic Damages cover actual financial losses such as medical bills, lost wages, and related expenses. These damages reimburse out-of-pocket expenses including medical costs, as well as future earnings lost because of the illness.

Noneconomic Damages address the human cost of illness: pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. Clarence Borel's final months illustrate this category starkly—in his last year he couldn't sit up for more than ten minutes, weighed less than a hundred pounds, and survived on cream of wheat, jello, and beef bouillon because he couldn't swallow solid food.

Loss of Consortium compensates a spouse for the loss of companionship, affection, and support that the illness takes away.

Punitive Damages are awarded when a company's conduct was outrageous, such as when some companies actively concealed dangers to protect their profits. The asbestos manufacturers Borel sued had known for decades that their products were killing workers. Some had conducted their own studies proving it. They sold their products anyway, choosing profit over human life.

Wrongful Death Damages allow surviving family members to recover compensation when asbestos exposure kills someone they love.

Survival Damages compensate the victim's estate for what the victim endured between diagnosis and death.

One important note: product liability laws vary significantly from state to state. Each state sets its own rules for what claims are available, how damages are calculated, and how long you have to file. Statutes of limitations for asbestos cases can range from one to six years depending on the state, the type of disease, and when you were diagnosed. Some states cap certain types of damages; others don't.

See how the laws work in your state.

Who Can File?

People Who Worked Directly With Asbestos. If you worked with or around asbestos-containing products, you likely had direct exposure. This includes handling asbestos insulation, gaskets, brake pads, or cement; working near others who used asbestos products; and tearing out or installing materials that released asbestos dust.

Learn more about high-risk industries, occupations, and products.

Secondary Exposure. You don't have to have worked with asbestos yourself. Asbestos fibers cling to clothing, shoes, and hair such that workers often carried deadly dust home to their families without knowing it. Clarence Borel's daughters remember shaking the white dust from his work clothes in the garage before putting them in the washing machine. "It was like snow," they recalled. Decades later, four of his six children developed asbestosis from that secondary exposure. They have their own claims against the same companies whose products their father carried home.

Learn more about secondary exposure claims.

How We Win Your Product Liability Case

In asbestos litigation, the central question is what the law calls causation: did asbestos exposure from a particular company's product cause or contribute to your illness?

General Causation asks whether asbestos causes a specific disease in anyone. For mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis, the answer is universally "yes." This hasn't been seriously disputed in decades.

Specific Causation asks whether asbestos caused the specific disease the injured person has. This is where the fight happens. Defense attorneys won't argue that asbestos is safe—instead, they'll argue that their client's asbestos didn't cause your illness. We prove each defendant's responsibility through:

• Reconstructing Your Exposure History. We investigate which facilities you worked at, what asbestos products were used there, which manufacturers supplied those products, and how workplace practices created exposure. You don't need to remember brand names. We identify the materials through work orders, union records, shipping manifests, and historical product catalogs.

• Our Document Archives. We maintain what may be the largest private collection of asbestos-related documents in the country, with over 200,000 documented exposure sites, decades of digitized court records, shipping records showing which products went to which facilities, and internal corporate communications where manufacturers acknowledged the dangers of their products.

• Medical Experts. We work with board-certified physicians and industrial hygienists who specialize in asbestos disease. They review your exposure history, analyze your pathology, and provide expert opinions connecting your illness to specific exposures.

• Defeating Defense Arguments. Smoking doesn't cause mesothelioma—only asbestos does. For lung cancer, smoking and asbestos create a synergistic effect that actually strengthens causation arguments. Genetic predisposition isn't causation; it's vulnerability. Our experts know how to address these defenses.

The companies that poisoned workers counted on the passage of time to protect them from accountability. They counted wrong.

Learn more about our firm's approach and our unique resources.

Lawsuits and Trust Claims Work Together

Many of the companies that manufactured asbestos products have filed for bankruptcy. Johns-Manville, Pittsburgh Corning, Owens Corning, and Fibreboard are among the roughly 60 companies with active asbestos bankruptcy trusts. If a manufacturer has an asbestos trust, you file a trust claim instead of a lawsuit. But bankruptcy trusts are only part of the picture.

Other defendants such as premises owners, successor companies, equipment manufacturers, and solvent product makers can still be sued. Many families are entitled to both trust claims and lawsuit recoveries, pursued simultaneously.

On our Clarence Borel page, we walk through exactly what would happen if someone with his exposure history contacted us today.

See how we'd handle his case today.

Take the First Step

Asbestos-related diseases have long latency periods, but the law doesn't wait. Every state imposes strict deadlines for filing claims, and once those deadlines pass, your right to compensation is lost—no matter how strong your case.

I know this from personal experience. I lost family members to asbestos-related disease. By the time I became an attorney and understood what legal options should have been available, the statute of limitations had run. I never got justice for my own family. It's one of the reasons I do this work, and why I'll never let a client miss a deadline that could have made a difference. Read my story.

If you or someone in your family has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, or asbestosis, the time to act is now.

When you contact us for a free consultation, we'll review your work history and exposure, explain which companies may be liable, identify the trust claims and lawsuits that apply to your situation, and answer your questions about what comes next. If you decide to move forward, we handle everything—the investigation, the paperwork, the filings, the negotiations—so you can focus on your health and your family.

The consultation is free. There's no obligation. You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.

Call 833-4-ASBESTOS (833-427-2378) or schedule your free consultation online.