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A Letter From Susan and Charles Litherland
We wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the great team effort in representing us with our mesothelioma case. It has given us peace of mind through this difficult year.
July of '06 Charlie, at age 68, was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma from exposure in the 60's and 70's to asbestos. Dr Mason at the Cleveland Clinic felt Charlie would be physically strong enough for the extrapleural pneumonectomy procedure. Because of the severity of this disease, and the side effects of this surgery, we decided to look into an asbestos law firm to help determine our eligibility for an asbestos case and get the wheels in motion before his operation.
Through research and many family discussions, we asked your law firm, Early, Ludwick, Sweeney & Strauss to visit us in Ohio to discuss our options regarding Charlie's work background and exposures.
Jennifer Lucarelli promptly came to the privacy of our home and spent several hours answering our questions and explaining how the process would work. Her professionalism during the visit gave us the comfort level to proceed to the next step.
Mark Strauss was assigned to be our attorney. Within a week, Mark flew to Ohio and met with Charlie. He spent considerable time to understand Charlie's work experience building and installing pipe organs, as well as his military background, focusing on the timeframe where he was working with asbestos.
After Charlie had his chemotherapy sessions we had our depositions in Ohio. Mark coordinated and handled the process and then took the case forward from that point and worked on our behalf while we focused on the surgery and long recovery. We knew that Mark was working every day for us even though we only talked once a week or e-mailed during this trying period. We have had several of the defense attorneys tell us we have a great attorney and how dedicated Mark is to his clients. We experienced that first hand and our relationship is not only professional with Mark, but he is now a friend for life!
Our jury trial was set for October, 2007 and Robert Sweeney represented us as our trial lawyer. Even though Bob was extremely well prepared for our case and ready to take it to completion our case was settled after jury selection and before it made it to court. Bob is very personable and well respected among his peers and our confidence level never wavered. Bob made a great impression on us, the potential jurors and, we believe, the defense lawyers.
Our team at the law firm was negotiating during this time to get our case settled so they could get Charlie back to the comfort of his own home. Charlie required extra support to handle travel and the law firm provided us with paralegals Jason and Jessica to escort us to and from the courthouse. Jason also never left our side each day during the trial preparations.
In summary, this disease has seemed insurmountable at times and we were not sure we could simultaneously handle a lawsuit. Mark, Bob, Jennifer, Jason and Jessica made sure we did not have additional stress in our lives and came through for us in many different and unexpected ways.
Our settlements have been more than we ever expected and we know it would not have happened without our team!
We both thank you each and every one of you from the bottom of our hearts!
Sincerely,
Susan and Charles Litherland
