How to Be a Good Plaintiff
The Danger of Lawsuit Loans
NEW ORLEANS, LA — In the aftermath of an accident, worry over bills causes additional stress to plaintiffs and their families. Lawsuit loans, commonly known in the industry as “legal financing,” appear to offer a promising way to secure funds while a case is litigated. However, some critics say that lawsuit loans are actually trapping vulnerable clients into contracts with fees that can equal more than 100% of the principle advanced.
The danger in lawsuit loans comes from the fact that they aren’t considered loans at all, but rather, are sold as “advances” or “purchased interest” in a client’s pending litigation. Since legal financing companies aren’t technically making “loans”, they aren’t bound by Louisiana’s usury laws, which restrict interest on most loans to 12%. In one typical case, a client struck by an 18-wheeler secured a $2,000.00 advance against his future settlement. The finance company charged a $720.00 processing fee, and if the client repaid the advance just one day after he took it, he would have owed $3,808.00. If his litigation continued for two years, the total amount he’d owe the finance company would be $7,072.00. A client is obligated to repay his advance, plus all agreed upon fees, before he receives any recovery from his own case.
Consumer advocates and lawmakers around the nation are concerned with what some see as the predatory nature of lawsuit loans, but very little regulation exists. Just five states have any sort of laws on the books regarding lawsuit lenders, and Louisiana isn’t one of them. A 2014 bill authored by Senator Dan W. Morrish, which sought to provide some structure for legal financers operating in Louisiana, didn’t clear the legislature. Instead, the industry sets its own professional standards through the American Legal Finance Association. Those lenders who become members agree to a Code of Conduct with provisos against such behavior as interfering in a client’s litigation, or intentionally advancing money in excess of what the case is worth. There is no need for a finance company to join the ALFA, in order to offer its services to the public.
Most attorneys will advise a client to exhaust any other means of securing a loan, before signing up with a legal financing company. As a last resort, lawsuit loans provide clients with money needed to pay medical bills or cover expenses after an injury, and because the lender is advancing money against a settlement, a client with a negative credit score or lack of traditional collateral can still receive funds. But the cost of such a loan can be astronomical, and may significantly reduce any recovery the client is able to get out of his settlement.
If you’ve been injured in an accident, it’s essential to contact an experienced attorney who will provide you with the best guidance on how to recover the maximum settlement for your injuries. Call The de Boisblanc Law Firm today at (504) 762-9418.
Mesothelioma
Causes of Mesothelioma
Working with asbestos is the major risk factor for mesothelioma.
In the United States, asbestos is the major cause of malignant mesothelioma and has been considered “indisputably” associated with the development of mesothelioma. Indeed, the relationship between asbestos and mesothelioma is so strong that many consider mesothelioma a “signal” or “sentinel” tumor.
A history of asbestos exposure exists in most cases. However, mesothelioma has been reported in some individuals without any known exposure to asbestos. In rare cases, mesothelioma has also been associated with irradiation, intrapleural thorium dioxide (Thorotrast), and inhalation of other fibrous silicates, such as erionite. Some studies suggest that simian virus 40 (SV40) may act as a co-factor in the development of mesothelioma.
Asbestos was known in antiquity, but it was not mined and widely used commercially until the late 19th century. Its use greatly increased during World War II. Since the early 1940s, millions of American workers have been exposed to asbestos dust. Initially, the risks associated with asbestos exposure were not publicly known. However, an increased risk of developing mesothelioma was later found among shipyard workers, people who work in asbestos mines and mills, producers of asbestos products, workers in the heating and construction industries, and other tradespeople.
Today, the official position of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the U.S. EPA is that protections and “permissible exposure limits” required by U.S. regulations, while adequate to prevent most asbestos-related non-malignant disease, they are not adequate to prevent or protect against asbestos-related cancers such as mesothelioma.
Likewise, the British Government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states formally that any threshold for mesothelioma must be at a very low level and it is widely agreed that if any such threshold does exist at all, then it cannot currently be quantified.
For practical purposes, therefore, HSE assumes that no such “safe” threshold exists. Others have noted as well that there is no evidence of a threshold level below which there is no risk of mesothelioma.
There appears to be a linear, dose-response relationship, with increasing dose producing increasing disease. Nevertheless, mesothelioma may be related to brief, low level or indirect exposures to asbestos.
The dose necessary for effect appears to be lower for asbestos-induced mesothelioma than for pulmonary asbestosis or lung cancer. Again, there is no known safe level of exposure to asbestos as it relates to increased risk of mesothelioma.
The duration of exposure to asbestos causing mesothelioma can be short. For example, cases of mesothelioma have been documented with only 1–3 months of exposure. People who work with asbestos wear personal protective equipment to lower their risk of exposure.
Latency, the time from first exposure to manifestation of disease, is prolonged in the case of mesothelioma. It is virtually never less than fifteen years and peaks at 30–40 years.
In a review of occupationally related mesothelioma cases, the median latency was 32 years
Based upon the data from Peto et al., the risk of mesothelioma appears to increase to the third or fourth power from first exposure.