Michael Schafle, Esq.Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filing
- 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 (878) 242-3264 rather than assuming the date has passed
The Shenango Valley ran two quite separate industries, and a Sharon filing decision usually begins by working out which one a man belonged to. On one side the steel: Sharon Steel, the castings floors, the tube mills at Wheatland, furnaces and rolling and foundry work of the kind found up and down this valley. On the other, the Westinghouse transformer plant, which from 1922 until it closed in 1985 built electrical equipment on a 58-acre site and drew a workforce of winders, electricians and assemblers doing nothing like mill work. Each points at a different group of suppliers.
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 Sharon, a history at Sharon Steel, the Westinghouse transformer plant, and the Shenango Valley tube mills and foundries typically implicates a recognisable set of suppliers that sold into those industries from the 1940s into the 1980s.
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. Sharon is in Mercer County, up against the Ohio line, and the county court is the obvious starting point. Venue follows the defendants, though, and the manufacturers behind a Shenango Valley work history sold across Pennsylvania — so Allegheny County and Philadelphia’s dedicated asbestos program are frequently available for the same case. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Both employers are effectively gone — Westinghouse closed in 1985, Sharon Steel went into bankruptcy in 1987 — and that is the reason most often given here for never making the call. It is the wrong reason. An asbestos claim is brought against the manufacturers whose products came into those plants, and their survival is a separate question from their customers’.
Call (878) 242-3264Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filing — fees and costs in Sharon
| 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
Sharon Steel went bankrupt and Westinghouse left. Is there anyone left to sue?
Almost certainly. The complaint runs against the companies that made and sold the asbestos-containing insulation, refractory, gaskets, packing and electrical materials used in those plants — not against the employers. Those manufacturers are a different set of companies with different fates, and many still pay, some through bankruptcy trusts.
I was at the Westinghouse plant, not the steel mill. Is that a different kind of case?
Different evidence, same route. Transformer and electrical work involved its own insulating materials and its own suppliers, so the defendants differ — but it is still a claim against product manufacturers, and the plant’s records and union rosters are still how the years get proved.
Who is actually sued in a Sharon 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.