A mesothelioma lawyer in New Kensington helps a person recently diagnosed figure out one thing first: who is responsible, and how much time is left to act. Many families here worked or lived near the former Alcoa New Kensington Works along the Allegheny River, and that history matters when tracing an asbestos exposure back to a specific mill, trade, or job site.
A mesothelioma lawyer company in New Kensington is a legal practice that helps residents diagnosed with mesothelioma or asbestos-related disease identify the companies or job sites responsible for their exposure and pursue compensation through lawsuits, settlements, or asbestos trust funds.
Focused representation for New Kensington & Westmoreland County — each matter handled with the same diligence, discretion, and preparation.
A no-cost conversation, in person or by phone, to go over your work history, diagnosis date, and possible exposure sites before deciding on any legal path. This is the starting point for every family, whether the diagnosis is a week old or a year old, and it typically covers job history, union records if any exist, and a first read on which companies may be involved.
Learn more →
Tracing where asbestos exposure likely happened — a specific mill, jobsite, trade, or product — using employment records, union history, and knowledge of regional industrial sites including plants along the Allegheny River corridor. This step often involves pulling old pension or union records, matching job titles to known asbestos-era manufacturing processes, and cross-checking product suppliers who served Westmoreland County plants decades ago.
Learn more →
Filing a personal injury or wrongful death claim in Pennsylvania court against a solvent company whose asbestos product or jobsite caused the exposure, with the goal of a settlement or trial verdict. Filing starts the formal discovery process, where the defendant company's own records and safety history often become part of the evidence.
Learn more →
Filing claims against one or more of the asbestos bankruptcy trust funds set up by companies that went bankrupt after asbestos litigation, often the fastest route to compensation when the responsible employer no longer operates. Many families qualify for more than one trust fund at once, since a single worker's exposure history can involve several bankrupt manufacturers whose products were used at the same jobsite.
Learn more →
Legal help for a spouse, adult child, or estate representative pursuing a claim after a family member has died from mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease, on behalf of the estate and surviving family. This claim runs on its own two-year clock starting at the date of death, separate from any claim the deceased may have already filed while living.
Learn more →
Negotiating directly with defendant companies and their insurers to reach a settlement without a trial, which resolves the large majority of mesothelioma claims nationally. Settlement talks weigh the strength of the work-history evidence, the company's asbestos litigation history elsewhere, and how much time the client can reasonably wait.
Learn more →
Taking a case to trial when a company disputes liability or refuses a fair settlement offer, with trial attorneys who prepare the case for a jury rather than settle for less than it's worth. Trial preparation includes depositions, medical expert testimony on the diagnosis and disease timeline, and presenting the work-history evidence gathered earlier in the case.
Learn more →Helping veterans and their families understand and pursue VA disability compensation for service-related asbestos exposure, which can be pursued separately from — or alongside — a civil lawsuit or trust claim. This is common for veterans who served aboard Navy ships or worked around insulation and gaskets during military maintenance work before asbestos hazards were widely understood.
Learn more →You deserve to know exactly who is handling your case. Verify our credentials for yourself.
Admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania · Bar No. 94298. Pennsylvania (January 12, 2005)
Verify →Temple University Beasley School of Law · 2004
A mesothelioma lawyer company in New Kensington is a legal practice that helps residents diagnosed with mesothelioma or asbestos-related disease identify the companies or job sites responsible for their exposure and pursue compensation through lawsuits, settlements, or asbestos trust funds.
Tell us what happened. You'll get a straight answer about your options in New Kensington — no cost, no obligation, and nothing leaves this office.
Not a call center, not a hand-off to a paralegal. The New Kensington 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.
If you were recently diagnosed and are not yet sure whether a specific company or a trust fund is responsible, start with a free case review — a lawyer can trace your work history and identify the right path before you file anything. If the company that exposed you is still in business and solvent, a lawsuit is usually the route, because it can pursue a larger recovery through negotiation or trial. If the responsible company went bankrupt decades ago, an asbestos trust fund claim is usually the faster route, since dozens of these funds already exist specifically to pay out claims without a courtroom fight. If you're a veteran exposed during military service — many New Kensington-area veterans worked around asbestos-laden insulation, gaskets, or shipboard equipment — a VA disability claim can run alongside a lawsuit or trust claim rather than replacing it. If the exposure happened decades ago and the person who was exposed has since died, a wrongful death claim filed by a spouse or adult child follows a separate two-year clock that starts at the date of death, not the original exposure. If more than one company or site is involved — for example, a worker who spent time at the former Alcoa Works and later worked construction trades around Stevenson Boulevard job sites — a single case review can sort multiple potential defendants rather than filing piecemeal. The trade-off is speed versus size: trust fund claims typically resolve faster with a set payout range, while a lawsuit takes longer but can result in a larger settlement or verdict when a solvent company is clearly at fault. Choosing wrong isn't permanent either — many firms pursue a trust claim and a lawsuit at the same time when the facts support both, so the decision is rarely all-or-nothing.
No confusing rate sheets. Your first conversation is always free.
Every case starts with a free, confidential consultation. No cost, 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 New Kensington attorney.
(724) 442-9757
New Kensington's industrial identity is tied directly to the former Alcoa New Kensington Works, which operated along the Allegheny River for decades and employed generations of local tradesmen — many in jobs that involved insulation, furnace work, or metal fabrication where asbestos exposure was common before the 1980s. Families in Parnassus, the Fifth Avenue business district, and Lower New Kensington near the river flats often have a parent or grandparent who worked at Alcoa, at a nearby mill, or in the trades that served that plant, which is exactly the kind of work history a mesothelioma case depends on tracing. Workers who commuted along the Tenth Street Bridge or spent careers near the Allegheny River Lock and Dam No. 3 industrial corridor often moved between several employers over a career — a mill job, then a construction trade, then maintenance work at a plant near Stevenson Boulevard — and each stop is a potential source of exposure worth checking rather than assuming only one job matters. Younger family members now training at Westmoreland County Community College's Advanced Technology Center sometimes come from the same households where a grandfather's asbestos exposure decades ago is only now surfacing as a diagnosis, since mesothelioma can take twenty to fifty years to appear after exposure. A case review can happen at your kitchen table, near Valley High School, or wherever is easiest — a trip downtown is never required to get started, and that matters in a city where many families managing a new diagnosis are also managing appointments at hospitals outside New Kensington itself.
Free, confidential consultations for New Kensington & the surrounding area.
Michael Schafle, Esq.