DELVENTHAL LAW
FORT WAYNE, INDIANA ENVIRONMENTAL INJURY LAWYER
Nobody should have to live in a building or work in a space in which they are being exposed to environmental hazards. Unfortunately, environmental hazards exist in many different areas throughout Indiana, and they can result in serious and sometimes fatal injuries. Environmental injuries can take many different forms, from immediate traumatic exposure to a toxic chemical to long-term effects of exposure to asbestos.
Given the nature of environmental injuries, it can take months or even years before a person knows that she has been exposed to a dangerous substance. As such, many plaintiffs do not even realize that they have suffered a serious harm until decades have passed since their exposure to the harmful toxin. If you recently developed an illness that may have resulted from exposure to a dangerous chemical or toxic substance, you should learn more about filing a claim by speaking with an experienced Fort Wayne environmental injury attorney.
WHAT IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL INJURY?
Environmental injury law is a broad area of the law that deals with many different types of substances that can be dangerous to a person’s health and well-being. Generally speaking, environmental injury law falls under personal injury law, which allows plaintiffs to file claims against negligent or otherwise responsible parties for serious injuries that result from the use of toxic substances, the dumping of toxic waste, and other actions that can be harmful to a person’s health.
Sometimes environmental injury claims are discussed as “toxic torts,” which is a particular type of personal injury lawsuit in which a plaintiff alleges that her exposure to a hazardous substance caused injury. In some cases, toxic torts lead to class action claims involving dozens—and sometimes more—parties who have been similarly injured.
COMMON TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTAL INJURIES
While there are many different types of environmental injury claims, some common bases for lawsuits include but are not limited to the following:
- Toxic waste dumping;
- Contamination of groundwater near a plaintiff’s home or business;
- Soil contamination;
- Lead poisoning;
- Lead exposure;
- Asbestos exposure and mesothelioma;
- Radon and lung cancer;
- Exposure to hazardous waste materials;
- Biological hazards;
- Combustion gases; and
- Exposure to certain types of pesticides.
WHAT IF I AM PARTIALLY TO BLAME FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL ACCIDENT?
Plaintiffs often worry that they may be partially negligent, and that they will not be able to obtain compensation. For example, what if a plaintiff knew about symptoms of an environmental injury but waited to seek medical treatment, and the injury worsened?
Under Indiana law, a plaintiff is only barred from recovery if she is more than 50 percent responsible. As long as a plaintiff is less than 50 percent at fault, the damages award will simply be reduced by his or her percentage of the responsibility.
WHAT IS THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL INJURY CLAIM IN FORT WAYNE?
The statute of limitations sets the time window for filing a lawsuit. If a plaintiff fails to file a claim before the statute of limitations runs out, then she or he can be barred from obtaining compensation through a personal injury lawsuit. In other words, if you miss the deadline according to the statute of limitations, you will not be able to file a claim in court.
The statute of limitations for environmental injury claims in general can be complicated given the different types of lawsuits that may arise out of environmental hazards. Under Indiana law (Ind. Code. § 34-11-2-4), general personal injury lawsuits have a two-year statute of limitations. As such, any claim must be filed within two years from the date of the injury. However, given that some environmental injuries do not produce symptoms for many years, such as asbestos exposure, the Indiana Supreme Court has recognized an extended statute of limitations in cases like these. For instance, in Myers v. Crouse-Hinds Division of Cooper Industries, Inc. (2016), the Indiana Supreme Court determined that even 10 years is not enough time for some asbestos and mesothelioma claims. To be sure, some healthcare providers argue that mesothelioma may not develop for 20 years after exposure to asbestos.
You should speak with an environmental injury attorney in Fort Wayne as soon as possible to determine how much time you have to file your claim. The sooner you speak with an advocate, the sooner you may be eligible to receive compensation.
SEEK HELP FROM AN ENVIRONMENTAL INJURY ATTORNEY IN FORT WAYNE, INDIANA
Were you injured by exposure to a toxic or hazardous substance? You may be eligible to seek financial compensation by filing an environmental injury claim. An aggressive Fort Wayne environmental injury lawyer can examine the facts of your case and can discuss your options for moving forward with a lawsuit. Contact Delventhal Law Office LLC to learn more about how we can help with your case.
The Indiana law that applies to your environmental injury case
Environmental-injury claims in Indiana proceed under negligence, nuisance, trespass, and product-liability theories, with the two-year statute of limitations in IC 34-11-2-4[1] measured from discovery of the injury under Indiana's latent-disease discovery rule. Toxic exposure cases — benzene, asbestos, vinyl chloride, PFAS, lead, hexavalent chromium — often involve long latency periods before the cancer, lung disease, or neurological injury manifests. Indiana's 51% modified comparative-fault rule (IC 34-51-2-6[2]) applies, and the Indiana Product Liability Act (IC 34-20[3]) frames claims against chemical manufacturers and product suppliers.
How insurance carriers fight Fort Wayne environmental injury claims
Polluters and chemical manufacturers defend on alternative-causation grounds — pointing to smoking, occupational exposures, family history, and ambient air pollution as the real cause of the cancer or organ damage. They challenge the dose-response model, arguing the documented exposure was below any threshold of biological plausibility. They invoke the state-of-the-art defense, claiming the hazard was unknown to science when the exposure occurred. They argue compliance with EPA, OSHA, and state permitting standards as a complete defense, despite published cases holding otherwise. We counter with industrial hygiene reconstruction, toxicological dose-response modeling, internal corporate documents pulled in discovery, and the hazardous-air-pollutant and toxicology profiles published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency[4] alongside OSHA permissible exposure limits at OSHA regulations[5].
Evidence we preserve in the first 48 hours
Environmental cases require historical exposure reconstruction and rapid pulls of regulatory inspection records before retention schedules erase them.
- Employment, residency, and exposure history covering decades, including workplace job descriptions, residential addresses, and water-system service areas.
- Industrial hygiene records, OSHA air-monitoring data, and any company-conducted exposure assessments, obtained through discovery or freedom-of-information requests.
- EPA enforcement records, consent decrees, Toxic Release Inventory filings, and state environmental management agency inspection reports for the implicated facility.
- Complete medical records and biomarker testing — blood lead, urinary arsenic, PFAS serum levels, beryllium lymphocyte proliferation — establishing internal exposure dose.
- Treating-physician records and qualified toxicology expert opinion linking the specific exposure to the diagnosed disease under accepted dose-response models.
Damages categories in an Indiana environmental injury case
Environmental-injury damages cover medical care for diagnosis and treatment of the toxic-exposure disease, lifetime monitoring and surveillance, lost wages, lost future earning capacity, and non-economic damages for pain, suffering, and the existential weight of a life-limiting diagnosis. Many environmental cases also support medical-monitoring claims for currently asymptomatic exposed individuals. Toxicology profiles, hazardous-air-pollutant standards, and enforcement history published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency[4] ground the manufacturer's notice of risk and support both compensatory and punitive damages under IC 34-51-3[6].
What our environmental injury clients ask most
How does Indiana's discovery rule apply to environmental-injury cases?
Indiana recognizes a discovery rule for latent-disease cases: the two-year statute of limitations under IC 34-11-2-4[1] runs from the date the injury was, or reasonably should have been, discovered — not from the date of last exposure. For toxic-exposure cancers with 20- to 40-year latency periods, this rule preserves claims that would otherwise be barred under a strict exposure-date trigger.
What kinds of exposures support an environmental-injury claim?
Common claims involve occupational chemical exposures (benzene, vinyl chloride, formaldehyde, hexavalent chromium, isocyanates, silica), contaminated drinking water (PFAS, trichloroethylene, lead, nitrates), airborne releases from industrial facilities, lead paint and lead pipe in older residential housing, and consumer-product exposures (asbestos, talc, glyphosate). Each requires individualized dose reconstruction.
What is medical monitoring and can I recover it without a current illness?
Medical monitoring covers the cost of periodic diagnostic testing for exposed individuals who are at increased risk of a latent disease but have not yet been diagnosed. Indiana courts have addressed the doctrine without fully endorsing standalone monitoring claims, so most monitoring recovery comes within an existing personal-injury claim where some manifest injury is documented.
Does compliance with EPA or OSHA limits defeat my environmental claim?
Regulatory compliance is admissible but not a complete defense. EPA permits and OSHA permissible exposure limits set regulatory floors, not safety ceilings, and Indiana juries can find liability even where a facility met its permits if the conduct otherwise breached the duty of care or the manufacturer knew the product was hazardous at lower exposures than the regulation contemplated.
Can I bring an environmental-injury claim against a former employer?
Indiana's workers' compensation exclusive-remedy bar generally precludes negligence suits against employers, but third-party claims remain viable against chemical manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, premises owners (where you worked as a contractor), and other non-employer entities whose products or conduct contributed to the exposure. Identifying the right non-employer defendant is the threshold task.
What happens after you hire us
From day one, we reconstruct the historical exposure timeline, pull EPA, OSHA, and IDEM records on the implicated facility, and identify viable non-employer defendants. We retain industrial-hygiene and toxicology experts before filing, evaluate MDL fit for systemic-contaminant cases, and file in Allen Superior Court or federal court depending on procedural posture. Every step is on a contingency-fee basis: no fee unless we recover.
