They say that if you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything – and they’re right. If you’ve recently been diagnosed with a serious health problem, either chronic or fatal, then the chances are that you are struggling to come to terms with what’s happened to you. Often, health problems are caused by biology or simply bad luck, but sometimes they are due to environmental factors, such as where you have worked. The question is, what should you do when you become unwell due to something that happened while you were at work, recently or in the past?
Determine the cause of your illness
Photo from PixabayThe first step is to determine the cause of your illness. How easy this is to do will depend on what your illness is. Some illnesses have a range of factors that could have caused them, making it difficult to determine the cause. Whereas other illnesses only have one cause, meaning that it’s easier to work out what’s caused them to occur.
For example, say you have been diagnosed with Mesothelioma, a form of asbestos-related cancer. In order to have this type of cancer, you need to have been exposed to asbestos. The chances are that if you have spent time working in the construction industry, at one point or another you may have been exposed to asbestos, as this is the most likely way that exposure happens. Asbestos is now illegal in building but that doesn’t mean that it’s not still present in older buildings, so when renovating an older building you may have been exposed to it. If you have now been diagnosed with Mesothelioma, a form of asbestos-related cancer, you may be wanting to seek help with your Mesothelioma case to get justice for what has happened to you.
Seek legal advice
Once you have determined what the cause of your illness is and are able to prove that it is definitely the cause, the next step is to seek legal advice. Get in touch with a local attorney who specializes in medical lawsuits and ask them whether they think that you have a case. If the answer is yes, you can then discuss the next steps with them. If you’re short of money, it’s best to look for an attorney that offers to work on a no-win, no-fee basis. That way, unless you win, you don’t have to pay them anything.
Take those responsible to court
If your lawyer thinks that you have a case, then the next step is to contact those responsible for your illness and take them to court. If you are suffering from an asbestos-related injury, then this will be the company that you were working for at the time. You see, it was your employer’s responsibility to ensure that you and your colleagues were properly protected from asbestos, and clearly they didn’t do that. So they can be held accountable for the fact that you have become unwell as a result of their actions.
Being seriously unwell is never nice, but by taking the people responsible to court, you can make your recovery process easier and less stressful because you won’t need to worry about your finances.
