Because corporations may value their public image nearly as much as large sums of money, such defendants may also stipulate in a mesothelioma settlement that such an agreement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing, and additionally may restrain the plaintiff from discussing the case with other persons (such as reporters or investigative journalists). Those provisions should be bargained for and may be the reason for the offer or the amount of the offer.
It is impossible to predict the value (if any) of a case because all the facts may not bet known until trial and juries are not all the same and can react very differently to the evidence. Mesothelioma settlements and damage awards have run into astronomical sums over the past two decades and have lost. The first successful legal action in a mesothelioma case was Clarence Borel v. Fiberboard Paper Products Corporation et. al., which was filed in 1969 and ended in 1973 with a posthumous award to the plaintiff's estate...
In 2005, a retired 82-year-old machinist whose asbestos cancer was found to result from exposure in the workplace sixty years earlier received an award in a California case. In addition, the jury found the corporate defendant guilty of malice, fraud and suppression of evidence.
On the other hand, in 2004, a 76-year-old man brought action against a company in another California case, claiming his mesothelioma was due to asbestos exposure back in the 1950's. The defense for Asbestos Corporation Ltd. was able to convince the jury that the man's problem was actually lung cancer brought on by his history of cigarette smoking. Asbestos is the sole cause of mesothelioma, whereas tobacco use has long been associated with lung cancer. Predictably, the jury found in favor of the defendant, and the plaintiff received nothing.
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