Michael Schafle, Esq. is a mesothelioma lawyer serving Upper Darby and the surrounding Delaware County neighborhoods of Drexel Hill, Stonehurst, and Aronimink.
A mesothelioma lawyer in Upper Darby is an attorney who helps asbestos-exposure patients and their families in Delaware County recover compensation through lawsuits, asbestos trust fund claims, and veterans' benefits, working on a contingency fee so no legal cost is paid upfront.
Focused representation for Upper Darby & Delaware County, each matter handled with the same diligence, discretion, and preparation.
Filing and litigating a personal injury asbestos lawsuit against the companies that manufactured or supplied the products behind the exposure. Pennsylvania's two-year statute of limitations runs from the diagnosis date, so the complaint is prepared quickly, often within weeks of the first case review. Most of these cases resolve through settlement rather than a verdict, and market-range mesothelioma settlements commonly land around $1 million to $1.4 million. The <a href="https://www.osha.gov/asbestos">OSHA asbestos standard</a> documents the occupational exposure limits that liable manufacturers ignored for decades, and that record becomes part of the evidence.
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For families who lost a parent or spouse to mesothelioma, a wrongful death claim seeks compensation for medical bills, lost income, funeral costs, and the loss of a loved one. In Pennsylvania the two-year filing window generally runs from the date of death, which can be a separate deadline from the original diagnosis deadline, so a claim is sometimes still open even when the injury-lawsuit window has closed. The estate's personal representative typically brings the claim on behalf of the surviving family.
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Recovering from the roughly 60 bankruptcy trust funds that hold an estimated $30-plus billion set aside by former asbestos manufacturers. Trust claims are paid from a pre-funded pool, usually without a trial, and a worker exposed to multiple products can file against several trusts at once for the same illness. Individual scheduled values range from about $7,000 to well over $1 million depending on the trust and the diagnosis. The <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-11-819">Government Accountability Office's report on asbestos trusts</a> describes how these court-approved funds were structured to pay current and future claimants.
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Help filing VA disability compensation claims for Navy, shipyard, and other veterans whose asbestos exposure traces to military service aboard ships, in boiler rooms, or in insulation work. A VA claim runs alongside a lawsuit or trust claim and does not reduce either recovery, because the government and the private manufacturers are separate payers. Service-connected mesothelioma is commonly rated at 100% disability under the <a href="https://www.va.gov/disability/eligibility/hazardous-materials-exposure/asbestos/">VA's asbestos exposure guidance</a>, which also covers surviving-spouse DIC benefits.
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Reconstructing where and when the asbestos exposure occurred, often 20 to 50 years earlier at refineries, power plants, shipyards, construction sites, schools, or factories. This stage ties specific job sites and specific products to specific liable companies, which is the foundation every lawsuit and trust claim is built on. The work pulls union records, Social Security earnings histories, co-worker statements, and product-identification databases. The <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/asbestos/">CDC's NIOSH asbestos page</a> catalogs the trades most heavily exposed, which helps match a worker's job title to the products he handled.
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Representing spouses and children who developed mesothelioma from asbestos fibers carried home on a worker's clothes, hair, and tools, long before anyone understood the danger of shaking out a dusty uniform. Take-home exposure cases follow the same lawsuit and trust-fund paths and are recognized under Pennsylvania law. The <a href="https://www.epa.gov/asbestos">EPA asbestos program</a> confirms that no level of asbestos exposure is considered safe, which underpins the liability theory in these household claims.
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Taking a case before a judge and jury when a fair settlement is not offered. The vast majority of asbestos cases settle, but preparing each file as if it will go to trial is what keeps settlement offers honest. Pennsylvania's asbestos docket is handled with specialized case-management procedures, and the <a href="https://www.pacourts.us/">Pennsylvania courts system</a> publishes the rules that govern how these mass-tort filings move. A trial verdict in a strong case can exceed $2 million, though amounts vary widely.
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Pinpointing the full set of companies whose asbestos products a single worker touched, since a pipefitter or boilermaker often handled gaskets, insulation, cement, and valves from a dozen different manufacturers across one career. Naming each defendant and each trust correctly is what allows several claims to run at the same time, which is usually how total recovery is maximized. The <a href="https://www.cpsc.gov/">Consumer Product Safety Commission</a> records the historical presence of asbestos in building and industrial products, supporting product-level identification.
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Admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania · Bar No. 94298. Pennsylvania (January 12, 2005)
Verify →Temple University Beasley School of Law · 2004
Tell us what happened. You'll get a straight answer about your options in Upper Darby, no cost, no obligation, and nothing leaves this office.
Not a call center, not a hand-off to a paralegal. The Upper Darby attorney who takes your case is the one who handles it.
On contingency matters you pay nothing up front, our fee comes out of the recovery only if we win. If we don't, you owe us nothing.
The right path depends on where the asbestos exposure came from and whether the company that caused it still exists. If the manufacturer that made the asbestos product is still in business, a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit is usually the route, and those cases most often resolve through a negotiated settlement rather than a verdict. If the responsible company already went bankrupt, which is true of dozens of former asbestos manufacturers, the claim goes to that company's asbestos trust fund instead, which pays from a pre-funded pool without a courtroom.
S. Navy or other military service, a VA benefits claim for disability compensation runs in parallel and does not reduce a lawsuit or trust recovery. The trade-off is timing and certainty: trust fund claims tend to pay faster and with less friction but at scheduled amounts, while a lawsuit can reach a larger recovery and takes longer and carries more process.
A take-home exposure claim fits a spouse or child who never worked around asbestos themselves but lived with a tradesman who carried fibers home, and it follows the same two tracks. Many Upper Darby families pursue more than one of these at once, because a single worker was often exposed to products from several different companies over a thirty- or forty-year career. gov/types/mesothelioma">National Cancer Institute's mesothelioma overview explains how the disease's long latency connects a present-day diagnosis to work done decades earlier, which is the fact that shapes which claims are still open.
No confusing rate sheets. Your first conversation is always free.
Every case starts with a free, confidential consultation. No cost and no obligation, just a clear answer about where you stand and what your options are.
On contingency matters you pay nothing up front. Our fee comes out of the recovery only if we win your case, if we don't, you owe us nothing.
Tell us what happened and we'll get back to you quickly, usually the same day. Everything you share is confidential, and there's no cost to speak with a Upper Darby attorney.
(610) 229-5135
Upper Darby and the river wards of Delaware County sit near the old industrial corridor along the Delaware River, where refineries, former shipyards, and power plants exposed generations of local tradesmen to asbestos through the 1970s. Many retired pipefitters, boilermakers, electricians, and Navy veterans who raised families around Garrettford, Bywood, and Highland Park worked those sites, and mesothelioma can surface 20 to 50 years after that exposure, which is why a diagnosis today often traces to a job held before the 69th Street Transportation Center looked the way it does now. Asbestos was also common in the township's mid-century housing stock and in older public buildings, from pipe insulation and boiler wrap to floor tile and ceiling texture, so exposure was never limited to the big plants.
Tradesmen who commuted to the Philadelphia Navy Yard and the refineries down along the river, then came home to streets near Naylor's Run Park and Aronimink, sometimes carried fibers back on their work clothes, which is how a spouse who never set foot on a job site can still develop the disease. gov/asbestos/">Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry documents this long latency and the take-home exposure pattern that Delaware County families keep encountering. Because so many of these job sites belonged to companies that have since reorganized or gone bankrupt, a worker from the Upper Darby area frequently has both a live lawsuit against a surviving manufacturer and one or more trust claims against companies that no longer exist, running at the same time.
Free, confidential consultations for Upper Darby & the surrounding area.
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Michael Schafle, Esq.