My Toughest Case, A Disease With No Cure – Jeffrey T. Gaughan

Many people associate asbestos and mesothelioma lawsuits with late-night TV commercials and might not take them seriously, but Jeffrey T. Gaughan considers

these cases among his most difficult. As an attorney at the Lake Charles-based law firm Baggett McCall, Gaughan deals with them on a regular basis because of the number of plants and chemical refineries in Louisiana.

“As a general group of cases, regardless of specific facts, they’re tough,” he said. “The insidious problem with asbestos is that it never seems to go away. You turn on the TV at night, and you see it all the time. And frankly, it’s been around as a litigated matter for more than 30 years now, and it shows no signs of disappearing unfortunately,” he continued. “The workers – the people who were our fathers and grandfathers, who worked in the plants and shipyards – got sick and a lot of them have passed away, but what we’re seeing now is family members who were exposed through the clothes that their dad or their grandfather wore home coming down with the same illness. It’s a type of cancer that affects the lungs and absolutely has no cure.”

Dealing with asbestos and mesothelioma lawsuits, he says, becomes very emotional.

“Anytime you get that phone call from a client or family member that says ‘my dad, my mom, or somebody has been diagnosed [with mesothelioma]’ the problem is – and they know it by that point – that there’s no cure. There’s absolutely no hope,” he said. “It always becomes very difficult, emotionally, to try to appease the family, to try to make them understand what the legal process is about because they know the
person they’re concerned about is not going to be here.”

As a lawyer in a civil case, Gaughan says, the only thing he can do for a grieving family is to help them win damages – either through trial or a settlement. But, that often is not enough for a family dealing with a death.

“In the case we had recently, what the family wanted was an apology. They did not want some extreme amount of money; it wouldn’t have helped because what they wanted back was their dad,” he said. “What they wanted at trial, day after day… was an apology and at some point we went to the defendant and said, ‘Look, you would help a lot if you apologized to them.’ And unfortunately that never happened; you can’t put a monetary value on a parent. It’s difficult.”

In a difficult situation like this, as with all relationships, Gaughan says communication between clients and attorney is key.

“The more you talk, the more you discuss things, the more you find some common ground, the more you find the ability to communicate, you discover who the client is, what’s important to them,” he said. “We might all end up in the courtroom someday and put on trial, but the relationship you develop with a client takes a lot of time and effort.”

Besides asbestos-related claims and mesothelioma lawsuits at Baggett McCall, Gaughan handles cases involving chemical exposure, car accidents, products liability, and pharmaceutical cases (both drugs and medical devices). The ‘designated Yankee’ of the firm, Gaughan grew up in Western Maryland and attended James Madison University in Virginia for his undergraduate degree and moved to New Orleans where he graduated from Tulane Law School. However, he seems to prefer living in the South.

“I tell you what, I visited my mom over the Christmas holidays and it was 7 degrees up there,” Gaughan said. “It made me realize why I do not want to go up North.”

After getting married. Gaughan and his wife moved to Savannah, GA for a short period, but ultimately settled in Lake Charles, LA. They have four children, all of whom are involved in sports and other activities, keeping Gaughan busy.

He finished by saying, “One of these days I’ll have time to develop a hobby, but for the most part it’s chasing everybody around.”