Toxic Torts

A toxic tort is a type of personal injury lawsuit that is filed by a person who has been injured by exposure to dangerous chemicals. It can be filed against the producer of those chemicals or the party responsible for exposing the injured person to them. There are four basic kinds of toxic tort.

Pharmaceutical torts are filed when a negligent company produces flawed drugs that injure people. It is easy to confuse a pharmaceutical tort with a medical malpractice case. The difference is that in a pharmaceutical toxic tort, the health care provider is not being blamed for prescribing the drug. All the information available to them when they wrote the prescription led them to believe the drug was safe. The company that produced the faulty drug is considered liable for any damages done.

After pharmaceutical complaints, the most common form of toxic tort is filed by people who are exposed to dangerous chemicals at the workplace. One famous example of this is the lawsuits filed by employees and former employees who got sick after working with asbestos. If a company does not provide workers with adequate safety equipment and information about the chemicals they are required to work with, the company can be liable for any injury those workers receive.

A toxic tort can also be filed by people who are exposed to deadly chemicals in their own homes. If a person sells or rents a property without warning the new owner or leaser about a problem with mold, or if construction workers use toxic materials to build or decorate a home, that could be grounds for a toxic tort. A more controversial form of tort is sometimes filed against corporations that pollute a community’s air or water supply. This is known as an environmental toxic tort.

If you have been injured by chemicals due to another party’s careless or malicious ways, contact Madison toxic tort attorneys Habush, Habush & Rottier at 608-255-6663.