What must an injured person show to win a toxic tort claim?
An injured person must prove by a preponderance of evidence—meaning, it is more likely than not—that the defendant exposed the injured person to toxic chemicals and the exposure directly caused the injury. A plaintiff may face some difficulty in proving causation because some toxic products cause injuries that only become apparent after the passage of many years. Additionally, a toxic product may be just one contributing factor to an injury or illness, such as when smoker suffering from lung cancer asserts that asbestos exposure and not smoking caused the cancer. Statutes of limitations generally require injured parties to file suit within a certain time period after their injuries occurred. At first blush, this rule would seem to eliminate those toxic tort claims where an injury does not become apparent until many years have elapsed. However, most statutes of limitations do not bar toxic tort cases because the time period generally only begins to run once the injury is discovered, or
