Veterans and Mesothelioma

Thousands of men and women who served our county from World War II to Vietnam are sick from asbestos exposure during their military service. Asbestos was often used for a number of military purposes especially construction and ship-building. Due to long latency periods, people who served as far back as the Second World War are only now being diagnosed.

While a diagnosis of mesothelioma is bad enough, veterans lack the same rights as civilians when it comes to compensation for their exposure.

According to "sovereign immunity," compensation cannot be sought from their former employer, the federal government. The only legal path for veterans is to try and find companies that were involved in providing or installing the asbestos to which they were exposed. However given the amount of time that has elapsed, most of those potential plaintiffs are out of business or involved in bankruptcy proceedings, making it difficult to receive compensation.