Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filing

Quick answer

A lawsuit is brought against the companies that made and sold the asbestos products — not against the employer in most cases, and not against the government
Most cases name several defendants, because most work histories involve several manufacturers' products
Pennsylvania courts can expedite a case where a living mesothelioma plaintiff is involved, which materially changes the timeline
Filing does not commit you to a trial. Most asbestos cases resolve before one
Deadlines apply and generally run from diagnosis, not exposure. Call (570) 300-8744 rather than assuming the date has passed

Kingston sits across the Susquehanna from Wilkes-Barre and has always looked like a residential borough, but for much of its history it lived on industry inside its own limits. A 1940 guide counted a cigar factory, four silk mills, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad shops and three working mines. The biggest of those was the DL&W’s Woodward colliery on Ross Hill, which shipped coal from 1888 and whose breaker, rebuilt in concrete and steel, ran its own coal-fired power plant until it closed in 1961.

Filing is the step people picture when they imagine a case, and it is usually the shortest part of the story. Everything that determines whether a lawsuit is worth filing happens beforehand: establishing the diagnosis, reconstructing the work history, and identifying whose products were on the job. By the time a complaint is drafted, the substantive questions have largely been answered.

The defendants are manufacturers and suppliers — the companies that made the insulation, block, cement, gaskets, packing, and friction products that a person worked around. It is not usually a case against the employer, and where the work was done at a federal installation or aboard ship it is not a case against the government. Most complaints name a group of companies, because most careers put someone near more than one manufacturer's material. Around Kingston, a history at the Woodward colliery, the Kingston Coal Company, or the DL&W shops typically implicates a recognisable set of suppliers that sold into those industries from the 1930s into the 1970s.

Timing is the part worth understanding properly. Pennsylvania sets limits on when a claim can be brought, and for asbestos disease those limits generally run from diagnosis rather than from the exposure decades earlier — but exactly when the clock started can itself be contested, and the rule is not the same for a living claimant as for a family bringing a claim after a death. That is a question to put to someone early rather than to settle from a web page.

Against that, courts here can move quickly where the plaintiff is living and ill. Pennsylvania practice allows an asbestos case involving a living mesothelioma plaintiff to be expedited, which is one of the few places where the system genuinely accommodates the medicine. It is also a reason not to wait: the procedural advantages available to a living claimant are not available afterward.

Filing is not a commitment to trial. The large majority of asbestos cases resolve before one, through settlement with some defendants and trust claims against others, often in combination. What filing does is preserve the claim and start a clock that the defendants must answer to. Kingston is in Luzerne County, whose courthouse is in Wilkes-Barre, just across the river. Venue follows the defendants rather than the family’s address, though, and Philadelphia’s dedicated asbestos program is frequently available for the same case. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

For a lawsuit that history matters because of what went into those operations: boilers and steam lines at the colliery power plant, packing and gaskets in its machinery, friction materials and insulation in the railroad shops. The defendants are the companies that made those products, not the coal or railroad companies, most of which no longer exist in their old form.

Call (570) 300-8744

Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filing — fees and costs in Kingston

Consultation and initial case review, at home or at the hospital	$0
Mesothelioma or asbestos claim, handled on contingency	No fee unless there is a recovery — the percentage is agreed in writing before representation begins
Requesting employment, union, and military records on your behalf	Included in the case review

No fee unless there is a recovery. Any fee is a percentage agreed in writing before representation begins.

Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filing — questions, answered

My grandfather worked at the Woodward breaker. Was that an asbestos job?

It could have been. Woodward ran its own coal-fired power plant alongside the breaker, and boilers, steam lines and the machinery around them were routinely insulated and packed with asbestos-containing materials.

Kingston was a residential town. Did people here really have industrial jobs?

Many did. A 1940 guide to the borough listed silk mills, railroad shops and three working mines within it, and plenty of Kingston residents worked across the river too.

Who is actually sued in a Kingston mesothelioma lawsuit?

The manufacturers and suppliers of the asbestos products someone worked around — not, in most cases, the employer, and not the government where the work was military or at a federal installation.

Is there a deadline to file?

Yes. Pennsylvania time limits generally run from diagnosis rather than from the exposure, and they differ for a living claimant and for a family filing after a death. When the clock started can be disputed, so it is worth checking rather than assuming.

Does filing mean we go to trial?

Usually not. Most asbestos cases resolve before trial, frequently through a combination of settlements and bankruptcy trust claims. Filing preserves the claim and obliges the defendants to respond.