Asbestos / Mesothelioma Attorney in Los Angeles, California

Asbestos Exposure History in Los Angeles

The Long Beach Naval Shipyard — closed in 1997 after the BRAC process — was one of the Navy's primary West Coast ship maintenance facilities and employed thousands of workers who were exposed to asbestos in boiler rooms, engine rooms, and pipe insulation throughout Navy vessels. The adjacent Port of Los Angeles complex employed longshore workers and ship repair personnel with additional exposure. South Bay oil refineries in Carson, Torrance, and El Segundo used asbestos pipe insulation throughout their process systems — maintenance pipefitters and boilermakers at these plants have elevated mesothelioma rates. Hughes Aircraft, Northrop, and other LA aerospace manufacturers used asbestos fireproofing in their facilities.

California's Favorable Legal Framework

California's pure comparative negligence system allows mesothelioma plaintiffs to recover even if they bear some degree of shared responsibility — though mesothelioma cases rarely involve significant plaintiff fault arguments given the exclusive causation by asbestos. California's 2-year SOL from diagnosis under CCP § 340.2 must be strictly observed. The San Francisco County Superior Court handles many Bay Area and Northern California asbestos cases; LA County Superior Court handles Southern California cases. Both venues have experienced asbestos judiciary and well-developed plaintiff-side case law.