An asbestos exposure lawyer helps people diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, and families who lost someone to one, recover from the companies responsible. At Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP, our asbestos exposure attorneys trace where you were exposed, identify the products and companies at fault, and pursue every source of compensation, including the special trust funds set up for asbestos victims. The exposure may have happened decades ago. Your right to recover has not disappeared.
For most of the last century, asbestos was everywhere in Western New York industry, in the steel mills, the power plants, the shipyards, the construction sites, and the factories that built this region. The companies that made asbestos products knew it was deadly and hid it for decades. Now the workers who breathed it are paying the price. Our Buffalo asbestos exposure lawyers hold those companies accountable. This is part of our broader toxic exposure and personal injury practice, so the full weight of the firm is behind your case.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
Several serious and often fatal illnesses. Mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen, is caused almost exclusively by asbestos. Asbestos also causes lung cancer, asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs, and has been linked to other cancers. These diseases typically appear ten to fifty years after the exposure, which is why a diagnosis today often traces to work done long ago.
Mesothelioma is the signature asbestos disease, and it's aggressive and incurable, which makes acting quickly essential. Because these illnesses take decades to develop, many people are diagnosed long after they've retired, with no idea the cause was a job they left years ago. Our asbestos exposure attorneys connect the diagnosis to the exposure that caused it, however far back it happened.
Most often on the job, in industries that used asbestos heavily. Construction, insulation work, shipyards and the Navy, steel mills, power plants, boiler rooms, and manufacturing all exposed workers to asbestos for decades. Tradesmen like pipefitters, boilermakers, electricians, insulators, and mechanics were especially at risk, often without any warning or protection.
The occupations our asbestos exposure lawyers see most often include:
Western New York's industrial past, from the steel plants of Lackawanna to the region's factories and power stations, exposed generations of workers. Our asbestos exposure attorneys know this local history and how to trace it.
It's exposure to asbestos brought home on a worker's clothing, and it can cause the same deadly diseases. Spouses who washed asbestos-covered work clothes, and children who hugged a parent coming home from the plant, breathed in the fibers too. Take-home exposure has caused mesothelioma in family members who never set foot in an industrial workplace.
These secondary exposure cases are heartbreaking and very real, and the companies responsible for the asbestos can be held accountable for them just as for the workers themselves. If you developed an asbestos disease and never worked around it directly, a family member's job may be the source. Our asbestos exposure lawyers investigate that connection, because a spouse or child harmed by take-home asbestos has the same right to recover.
Usually the companies that made and sold the asbestos products, not your employer. Dozens of manufacturers produced asbestos insulation, materials, and products for decades while knowing they were dangerous, and concealed that knowledge. Those manufacturers, and others in the chain who supplied the products, are the parties typically responsible for an asbestos disease.
This is a crucial and often surprising point. An asbestos case is generally not a claim against the employer, but against the many companies whose products exposed you. Because a worker was often exposed to products from numerous manufacturers over a career, these cases can involve multiple responsible companies. Our asbestos exposure attorneys identify each product and company that contributed to your exposure.
They're funds set up to pay asbestos victims after many manufacturers went bankrupt. Because so many companies faced overwhelming asbestos liability, a large number filed for bankruptcy and were required to establish trust funds, holding billions of dollars, to compensate the people their products harmed. A victim can file claims against multiple trusts, in addition to suing companies that are still solvent.
These trusts are a defining feature of asbestos cases and a major source of recovery. Filing against them takes proof of your exposure to specific products and careful navigation of each trust's requirements. Our asbestos exposure lawyers pursue every trust your exposure supports, along with lawsuits against any responsible companies still in business, so no available source of compensation is missed.
Veterans have strong asbestos claims, especially those who served in the Navy. Asbestos was used extensively throughout ships and military equipment, and veterans have some of the highest rates of asbestos disease. Importantly, a veteran's claim is generally against the asbestos product manufacturers, not the military, and it can be pursued alongside any VA benefits.
Many veterans wrongly assume they can't recover because their exposure happened in service. In fact, the companies that supplied asbestos products to the military can be held responsible, and pursuing them does not affect a veteran's VA benefits. Our asbestos exposure attorneys handle veterans' cases and pursue the manufacturers that put asbestos aboard those ships.
A diagnosis and an exposure history. You need a medical diagnosis of an asbestos-related disease, and evidence of where and how you were exposed, which products, at which jobs or locations, and when. Identifying the specific asbestos products you encountered is central to the case, because it determines which companies and trusts are responsible.
That product identification is detailed work, often reaching back decades to reconstruct a person's entire work history and the materials they handled. It's one reason experience matters so much in asbestos cases. Our asbestos exposure lawyers build that exposure history carefully, working with you and your family to document the jobs, sites, and products that caused your illness.
Often substantial compensation, from more than one source. An asbestos claim can recover your medical expenses, lost income, the cost of care, and compensation for pain, suffering, and the devastating impact of the disease, through a combination of trust fund claims and lawsuits against responsible companies. In a fatal case, the family can recover as well.
Because these cases can reach many responsible manufacturers and multiple trusts, the total recovery available to an asbestos victim is frequently significant. The companies concealed a deadly danger for profit, and the law holds them to account for it. Our asbestos exposure attorneys pursue every trust and every responsible company, so the recovery reflects the full harm the disease has caused.
The family may have a wrongful death claim. Mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases are frequently fatal, and when a loved one dies from an asbestos illness, the family can pursue claims against the responsible companies and trusts, along with a claim for what their loved one suffered. These claims can be brought even after the person has passed.
Our wrongful death lawyer page explains how these claims work in New York, who can bring them, and what a family can recover. Losing a loved one to a disease that a company knew was preventable is a profound injustice, and our asbestos exposure lawyers handle these cases with the compassion a grieving family deserves.
The clock runs from diagnosis, not from the exposure, which is what makes these decades-old claims possible. Because asbestos diseases take so long to appear, New York generally allows a claim to be filed within a set time after the diagnosis, and a wrongful death claim within a set time after the death. Even though the exposure may have been forty or fifty years ago, the deadline is tied to when the disease was found.
This discovery rule is essential, because without it every asbestos victim would be barred long before getting sick. But once the diagnosis is made, the clock is running, and mesothelioma in particular demands fast action because it progresses quickly. Our asbestos exposure attorneys move promptly to preserve testimony and evidence, especially where a client's health is failing.
Because mesothelioma is aggressive, and a victim's own testimony is invaluable. These cases benefit enormously from the injured person's own account of where and how they were exposed, and given how serious the illnesses are, time is often short. Courts recognize this and can expedite asbestos cases involving a seriously ill plaintiff.
Acting quickly lets us capture your testimony while you're able to give it, preserve the details of your exposure history, and pursue the case with the urgency it deserves. It also means recovery can come sooner, when it can do the most good for you and your family. Our asbestos exposure lawyers understand this urgency and move accordingly.
Focus on your treatment, and start pulling together your history. Follow your medical care, and begin writing down your work history, every job, employer, location, and the products and materials you remember, along with the years. Keep your medical records, and talk to an asbestos exposure lawyer promptly, because the sooner the case begins, the more can be done.
Your memory of your work history is one of the most valuable things in an asbestos case, and family members can often help fill it in. Don't assume too much time has passed or that the companies are gone; the trusts exist precisely for that situation. Getting our asbestos exposure attorneys involved early lets us build the exposure history and pursue the claim while it can most help you.
Our asbestos exposure lawyers reconstruct your exposure and pursue every source of recovery. From the start, our attorneys document your diagnosis, build a detailed history of where and how you were exposed, identify the responsible products, companies, and trusts, and move quickly given the seriousness of these illnesses.
Our asbestos exposure attorneys file claims against the applicable bankruptcy trusts and bring lawsuits against companies still in business, working with medical and product-identification resources to prove your exposure and your disease. Our team documents the full impact on you and your family and pursues the fullest recovery available across every source. Given how specialized asbestos litigation is, we marshal the right resources to pursue these claims effectively, and our firm stands with injured clients and their families from start to finish.
Our asbestos exposure lawyers represent injured people and grieving families across Western New York, and our firm handles these cases with the client's interests first, through settlement, trial, and appeal. Our attorneys understand the local industrial history that exposed so many workers, the trust and litigation systems that compensate them, and the urgency these diagnoses demand.
These cases reward a firm that knows how to trace a decades-old exposure, pursue both the trusts and the responsible companies, and treat a seriously ill client with the urgency and compassion they need. That's what our asbestos exposure attorneys bring, along with straight answers in plain language, so you always know where your case stands. You focus on your health and your family. Our team will handle the investigation and the fight.
If you or someone you love was diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos disease in Buffalo or Western New York, the attorneys at Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP are ready to help. Contact us for a free consultation, and a Buffalo asbestos exposure lawyer will review your diagnosis and history, explain the trusts and claims available, and lay out your options, with no fee unless we recover for you.
Don't wait, because these diseases are serious and the case is strongest when it begins early. The sooner our asbestos exposure lawyers start, the more our team can do to reconstruct your exposure, pursue every trust and responsible company, and protect the full recovery you and your family deserve. Even if the exposure was many years ago and you're not sure who's responsible, we can help you find out.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
Disclaimer: This page is for general information only and isn't legal advice. Reading it doesn't create an attorney client relationship. Asbestos and toxic tort law is complex and can change; the principles described reflect New York law as of 2026, and how they apply depends on your specific situation. Every case is different, and prior results don't guarantee a similar outcome. For advice about a specific diagnosis or exposure, please consult a licensed New York attorney.
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