Houston Silicosis Lawyer

Hearing a doctor say your lungs are scarred after years of cutting stone is frightening, especially while you are still trying to support a family. In Texas, a worker diagnosed with silicosis may be able to bring a product liability claim against the companies that made or sold the stone or equipment that created the dust. A silicosis lawyer can help identify those companies and explain what Texas requires first.

At Mokaram Injury Lawyers, we represent Texas workers and families in silica dust exposure claims against manufacturers and, in the situations Texas law allows, against suppliers. Call us at 281-222-2222 or contact us for a free case review, and we will look at what happened.

Silicosis and Silica Dust Exposure in Texas Stone Work

Silicosis is permanent lung scarring caused by breathing fine crystalline silica dust. That dust comes off stone when it is cut, ground, drilled, or polished. Texas workplaces where it is a daily hazard include:

• Countertop fabrication shops: Workers cut slabs to size, grind edges, and polish surfaces, often for years at a time.
• Countertop installation: Installers trim, drill, and adjust stone on site, sometimes with fewer dust controls than a shop has.
• Sandblasting and construction: Abrasive blasting, concrete cutting, and demolition can all release breathable silica.

Engineered stone, often sold as quartz, carries a particular risk. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that engineered stone typically contains more than 90% crystalline silica, and federal health officials have documented severe silicosis among engineered stone fabrication workers in several states, including Texas.

Who Can Be Held Responsible for Silica Dust Exposure in Texas?

A silicosis lawsuit in Texas is usually brought against the manufacturer of the stone product or of the equipment that generated the dust. A product liability claim focuses on the company that made or sold the product rather than on the employer, and our product liability team handles claims like these.

Claims Against Stone and Equipment Manufacturers

When the claim alleges a design defect, Section 82.005 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code requires the claimant to prove two things by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not. The first is that a safer alternative design existed. The second is that the defect was a producing cause of the injury, meaning a substantial factor in bringing it about.

In an engineered stone case, for example, the question may be whether a lower-silica product was economically and technologically feasible when the slab left the manufacturer’s control. Many silicosis claims also allege that the manufacturer failed to warn fabricators about the dust hazard or gave inadequate instructions for controlling it, which Texas treats as a separate type of product defect.

When a Supplier or Distributor Can Be Held Liable

Suppliers and distributors that did not make the product face a different standard than manufacturers. Under Section 82.003, such a seller is not liable for harm the product caused unless the claimant proves one of seven exceptions the statute lists. The four that fit stone supply most often are:

• Design participation: The seller took part in designing the product.
• Control over warnings: The seller had substantial control over the content of a warning or instruction that came with the product, the warning or instruction was inadequate, and the harm resulted from that inadequacy.
• Incorrect factual statements: The seller made an incorrect express factual representation about the product, the claimant relied on it in getting or using the product, and the harm would not have happened, or would have been less serious, if the product had matched that representation.
• Actual knowledge of a defect: The seller actually knew of a defect when it supplied the product, and the harm resulted from that defect.

The Medical Report Texas Requires Before a Silicosis Case Moves Forward

Before a silica claim can proceed in Texas, the claimant has to serve each defendant with a detailed physician’s report. Under Section 90.004, the doctor has to be board certified in pulmonary medicine, internal medicine, oncology, pathology, or, for a silicosis claim, occupational medicine.

The report has to cover:

• Examination: A physical examination of the exposed person, or a review of the available records if the person has died.
• Work and exposure history: A detailed occupational and exposure history.
• Health history: A review of the person’s medical and smoking history.
• Supporting records: Copies of the test results, including International Labour Organization (ILO) classifications, which grade chest X-rays for dust-related lung disease, and pulmonary function tests.

The report also has to document findings that support the diagnosis, such as acute silicosis, classic silicotic nodules larger than one centimeter, or progressive massive fibrosis, a severe form of the disease in which scarring forms large masses in the lungs.

Putting that together often means tracking down records that are years old. Our team includes a medical coordinator who helps gather them, and we handle the calls and paperwork so our clients can focus on their health.

How Long Do I Have to File a Silicosis Lawsuit in Texas?

Generally two years, but the clock for a silica claim does not start the way most people expect. Texas’s personal injury deadline gives a claimant two years from the date a claim accrues, which is the date the law considers the claim to have started. For a silica-related injury, that date is not the day of diagnosis.

Under Section 16.0031, the two years start on the earlier of two dates: the date the exposed person dies, or the date the claimant serves a defendant with a physician’s report that meets Texas’s requirements. For a living worker, serving that report is usually what starts the clock. Because a death also starts it, a family can face a two-year deadline even if no report was ever served.

Texas’s 15-year cutoff for product claims generally does not block a silicosis claim when the exposure happened within 15 years of the product’s first sale and symptoms showed up only after that period. Timing questions like these are one reason to have a lawyer look at your dates early.

What Are Silicosis Lawsuit Settlement Amounts Based On?

No published average tells you what a Texas silicosis case is worth, because each case turns on its own facts. The factors that usually carry the most weight include:

• Severity of the disease: How far the scarring has progressed, including whether it has reached progressive massive fibrosis or led to a lung transplant.
• Medical care: The cost of treatment so far and the care the illness will require in the future.
• Work and income: Wages already lost and the effect on the ability to earn going forward.
• Daily life: How much the illness limits breathing, activity, and time with family.

Those losses fall into two broad groups. Economic damages cover money losses such as medical bills and lost pay, while noneconomic damages cover harms like pain, suffering, and physical impairment. Exemplary damages, which punish serious misconduct rather than repay a loss, are capped in Texas by a formula tied to the other damages awarded.

Serious workplace illnesses and injuries call for a full record of every loss, and our own catastrophic injury work includes a $12 million result in a work injury case involving severe burns. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

When Silica Dust Exposure Causes a Death

Losing someone to silicosis is devastating, and it often comes after years of watching the illness progress. Under Section 71.004 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a wrongful death action is for the exclusive benefit of the surviving spouse, children, and parents. One or more of them may bring the claim for the benefit of all.

A wrongful death claim covers the family’s own losses, and families still settling an estate often benefit from having the claim reviewed early. Our wrongful death attorneys handle these cases with the care they require.

Why Texas Stone Workers Choose Mokaram Injury Lawyers

A silicosis claim means years of records, detailed medical proof, and companies prepared to fight the link between their product and your illness. Mokaram Injury Lawyers has spent three decades trying catastrophic injury and mass-injury cases in Houston and across Texas, and a silicosis attorney from our team handles each case directly. Clients can count on:

• Trial-tested leadership: Our founder, Ali Mokaram, is a Texas Southern University law graduate admitted to the State Bar of Texas in November 1995. He has co-counseled with Texas trial lawyers including John O’Quinn and Mark Lanier and has been named to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100.
• Mass-injury experience: In the Astroworld tragedy litigation, we recovered $43.5 million for several hundred clients. That figure is an aggregate across all of those clients, not one client’s recovery.
• Always available: A live person answers our phones 24 hours a day, so a worker coming off a late shift can still reach someone, and after-hours calls are some of our busiest.
• Family-level attention: We treat the people we represent like family, which matters in a claim that can stretch across years of treatment and records.

Frequently Asked Questions About Silicosis Claims

What Does It Cost to Hire a Silicosis Attorney?

Mokaram Injury Lawyers handles silicosis claims on a contingency fee, so you pay nothing unless we win. That arrangement makes quality legal representation available regardless of your financial situation.

Do I Need to Know Which Brand of Stone I Worked With?

Not necessarily. Many fabricators handle slabs from several manufacturers and never see a brand name. Supplier invoices, shop purchase records, product labels, and coworkers’ memories can often identify which companies made or sold the stone.

Can I Still Bring a Claim If the Company That Made the Slabs Has Gone Out of Business?

Possibly. Texas’s protection for sellers that did not manufacture a product has a seventh exception for this situation: a seller can be held liable when the manufacturer is insolvent or is not subject to the court’s jurisdiction. That can keep a claim alive against a distributor or supplier when the manufacturer itself cannot be reached.

Can I File a Silicosis Lawsuit and a Workers’ Compensation Claim?

Often, yes. A workers’ compensation claim runs through the employer’s coverage and generally pays part of medical bills and lost wages without anyone having to prove fault. Silicosis lawsuits against the companies that made or sold the stone are separate cases against different defendants, and they can seek losses workers’ compensation does not cover, such as pain and suffering. In Texas, workers’ compensation generally bars most lawsuits against an employer that carries it, which is one reason these claims focus on manufacturers and suppliers. When a worker receives workers’ compensation benefits and later recovers in a lawsuit, the carrier may be repaid from that recovery.

Can Silicosis Be Reversed With Treatment?

No. The lung scarring from silicosis cannot be undone, and it can keep progressing even after exposure stops. Treatment focuses on managing symptoms, and advanced cases may require oxygen therapy or a lung transplant, which is why future medical care is often a major part of a silicosis claim.

Talk to a Silicosis Lawyer in Houston

If you or a family member has been diagnosed with silicosis after working with stone in Texas, you do not have to figure out the next steps alone. The sooner we look at the case, the more options stay open, and even a rough list of the shops you worked in gives us a place to start.

Call Mokaram Injury Lawyers at 281-222-2222 or contact us today for a free case review with a silicosis lawyer who can explain your options.