Washington County mined coal, made glass, and rolled specialty steel, and its county seat saw all three. If you spent a career at Washington Steel, in one of the city’s glass plants, in the mines, or in the trades that serviced them, a mesothelioma diagnosis connects to that work. Michael C. Schafle, Esq. is a Philadelphia trial lawyer with a practice concentrated in asbestos litigation who represents Washington families statewide.
Three industries, one fiber
Each of the city’s industries used asbestos in its own way. Steel finishing meant annealing and pickling lines, furnaces, and steam systems dressed in asbestos insulation, with workers in asbestos gloves at the hot points. The glass houses ran continuous furnaces and lehrs whose insulation, curtains, and hand protection carried the same fiber. The county’s coal operations used it in boiler plants, hoist brakes, and pump packing. Different products, identical dust. Construction and demolition trades that renovated the county’s older buildings form a fourth group, exposed to the same materials secondhand. Our steel mill workers and miners pages describe the occupational patterns in depth, and the Pennsylvania exposure site directory holds the documented site histories these claims draw on.
What a diagnosis here usually means
Mesothelioma is rare, and its cause is not a mystery: asbestos exposure is the primary cause, and the disease typically appears 20 to 50 years later, per the National Cancer Institute (https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/asbestos/asbestos-fact-sheet). When an oncologist in Washington sees it, the next question is always about work. The legal claim follows the same logic in more detail: which plants, which departments, which products, which manufacturers.
The courthouse question
Living in a county seat, Washington families sometimes assume their case belongs in the courthouse downtown. Maybe; maybe not. Venue in asbestos litigation is chosen on the defendants and the evidence, and options can include Washington County, Allegheny County, or Philadelphia, whose Court of Common Pleas has operated a dedicated asbestos program since 1986 (In re: Asbestos Litigation, No. 1986-00001). Schafle is counsel in that Philadelphia docket and makes the venue judgment case by case. Pennsylvania’s Fair Share Act (42 Pa. C.S. § 7102) then governs how liability is divided among the companies found responsible; both topics are covered on our Pennsylvania asbestos laws page.
The parts you do not have to do
No family should be chasing fifty-year-old employment files from a hospital waiting room. The firm obtains Social Security earnings itemizations, employer and union records, and military files where they apply; locates co-workers; and preserves the client’s testimony early if health is declining. Deadlines still belong to you to respect: generally two years from diagnosis (42 Pa. C.S. § 5524), generally two years from death for wrongful death and survival claims. Calling early keeps every option open. Alongside any lawsuit, bankruptcy trust claims may be available where a responsible manufacturer reorganized; those are filed on paper, on separate schedules, and the firm coordinates them with the court case so neither undercuts the other.
What this means for your family
A Washington work history, whether it ran through stainless, glass, or coal, maps onto defendants that Pennsylvania courts have known for decades. Schafle has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America annually since 2017 and in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers 2021 through 2026; he resolved two multi-million-dollar mesothelioma settlements in 2023, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. A no is delivered as clearly as a yes, and just as quickly; there is no charge to find out. The city index lists every Pennsylvania community the practice covers.
When you are ready, request a free case review; the first conversation is free, private, and unhurried.