Editing Trust Fund Filing Guidance (section)

=== The Self-Representation Trap ===

Self-represented claimants typically recover 50-70% less than professionally represented victims, not due to legal fees but because of fundamental claim optimization failures. Common mistakes include filing with too few trusts, accepting expedited review when individual review would yield substantially more, and failing to coordinate evidence across multiple simultaneous claims.

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| style="padding:15px; color:#721c24;" | '''⛔ Critical Warning:''' Self-filed claims routinely miss 5-10 qualifying trusts that professional attorneys identify through exposure analysis. Each missed trust represents $10,000-$100,000 in lost compensation. The "savings" from avoiding legal fees typically costs victims 3-5x more in missed recovery.
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According to [https://mesotheliomaattorney.com/asbestos/compensation/ case experience], amateur claimants often miss secondary exposure trusts generating significant additional recovery. Automotive mechanics might focus on brake manufacturer trusts while overlooking [https://www.mesotheliomalawyercenter.org/asbestos/manufacturers/federal-mogul-corporation/ gasket, clutch, and adhesive manufacturer trusts] that could double total recovery through the Federal-Mogul subfunds and related filings.

Evidence preservation failures represent another costly mistake. Witnesses die, documents disappear, and memories fade over the decades between exposure and diagnosis. Professional firms maintain evidence preservation protocols capturing testimony and documentation while available—institutional knowledge proving invaluable when reconstructing exposure histories from 30-50 years in the past.