What Is the Average Settlement for Asbestos Lung Cancer?

Your Circumstances Affect What You May Qualify to Recover in an Asbestos Case

Certain factors may affect what compensation you can recover, including:

• Your age: In many cases, the older you are, the less compensation you will recover. For example, if you are a few years from retirement age, you will recover less than someone several decades from retirement.
• Your profession: Your profession and salary also affect your recoverable damages. For example, if you are a factory foreman, you likely earn more than a floor worker, meaning your lost wages will likely total more.
• The stage of your lung cancer or mesothelioma: The more advanced your lung cancer stage, the harder it will likely be to treat. This often means more aggressive treatment that could be more costly and lead to more pain and suffering. In other cases, this could mean that your lung cancer is untreatable, and you may need palliative care instead of aggressive and expensive treatment.
• The severity of the treatment you need: As discussed above, this will impact your medical bills and the physical and emotional pain and discomfort you experience.
• The pain and suffering you endure: Chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation can be very uncomfortable for the person receiving treatment. You can recover compensation for the pain and discomfort that both your cancer and its treatment caused.
• The compensation available through the asbestos trust fund: If you recover compensation through an asbestos fund, your recoverable compensation will likely differ from a lawsuit settlement or award. This is due to the money available in that specific trust fund and other factors.

Potentially Recoverable Compensation

There are two categories of damages you may be eligible to recover:

Economic Damages

Economic damages, also known as special damages, are typically more straightforward to calculate. They often have receipts or invoices, but may need testimony from an expert to substantiate them. You could qualify for compensation for any of the following:

• Medical bills, such as prescription medications, assistive devices, portable oxygen tanks, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, surgery to remove part or all of the lung, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and copays
• Lost wages
• Lost earning capacity or diminished earning capacity if you needed to work fewer hours or retire from the workforce
• Miscellaneous expenses related to your diagnosis, e.g., buying a hospital bed and renovating your home to accommodate in-home treatment, and the costs of transportation to and from treatment

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages, or general damages, are those without receipts or specific values. The damages available differ by state and situation, but may include:

• Pain and suffering
• Inconvenience
• Emotional distress
• Mental anguish
• Lost enjoyment of life
• Loss of consortium
• Development of anxiety or depression
• Embarrassment
• Worry

The value of these damages depends on the specifics of your case. Your lawyer can help you determine how much you might recover.

Wrongful Damages

If you lost a loved one due to lung cancer or mesothelioma, you may be entitled to recover:

• Funeral and burial costs
• Medical bills for the treatment your loved one received before their passing
• Lost financial support
• Loss of benefits, such as health insurance
• Lost services, such as those your loved one performed around the house before their diagnosis and passing
• Loss of inheritance or gifts
• Loss of consortium
• Loss of companionship and society
• Loss of guidance and advice
• Loss of affection
• Loss of love
• Pain and suffering
• Mental or emotional distress
• Grief
• Sorrow

The specific damages you can recover also depend on the state in which you live. Some damages are only available in certain states. For example, whether pain and suffering are available depends on the state. Some states don’t consider pain and suffering in wrongful death cases. Other states consider the pain and suffering of either the surviving family members or the decedent, while some states consider both.

Your Settlement or Award Will Likely Also Depend on Whether You File a Trust Fund Claim or Lawsuit

Lung cancer survivors or the family members of people lost to asbestos-related lung cancer or mesothelioma have two options for recovering compensation:

• Filing an asbestos lung cancer lawsuit
• Filing an asbestos trust fund claim

Your lawyer can help you explore these options and determine your best route. It is important to note that your choice could determine what you can recover.

Those who file trust fund claims can receive a percentage of their damages, ranging from 1.1% to 100%.

What you can recover also differs by trust. Your attorney can help you establish what you may be able to recover via a trust fund claim.

According to the most recent data from the RAND Corporation’s Institute for Civil Justice, a mesothelioma asbestos trust fund claim can range between approximately $7,000 and $1.2 million.

Do I Qualify for a Lung Cancer Settlement?

You may qualify to file a lung cancer lawsuit or trust fund claim if you meet the following criteria:

• You or your loved one has a valid diagnosis of lung cancer or mesothelioma.
• Your doctor diagnosed your lung cancer through a pathological method other than imaging, such as a biopsy, cytology, fine needle aspiration, or lobectomy.
  • If you are filing a mesothelioma claim, your doctor must have diagnosed you via a cytology or tissue biopsy
• You worked in the following industries or one similar:
  • Construction
  • Industrial
  • Mechanical
  • Shipyard, shipbuilding, or ship repair