Asbestos Removal Asbestos Cancers
Lung Cancer Chrysotile Asbestos
Today, lawsuits claiming that asbestos caused
plaintiffs' diseases form a gigantic part of the total amount of lawsuits
pending in American courts, with a cost of tens of billions of dollars for
expenses, settlements, and judgments to date. The original asbestos
manufacturers were driven into Chapter 11 bankruptcy; plaintiffs have moved to
suing corporations who had more peripheral connections to asbestos; the original
plaintiffs have gone from those who had mesothelioma and other serious
asbestos-related health problems to include those who merely were exposed to
asbestos and wished to recover for their fear of future injury. Nearly every
American industry has had asbestos defendants, and over 70 corporations have
filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of heavy liability claims. Since
the late 1970s, approximately 6% of all filings in American courts each year
were related to asbestos, leading to its perception as a sort of poster child of
tort reform and the rampant lawsuit excesses of the United States. A RAND study
found that less than half the money spent on asbestos litigation went to injured
parties, as opposed to attorneys' fees and administrative costs. As of 2004,
asbestos cases result in about 600 to 700 appellate opinions per year (that is,
including both federal and state courts); this number does not include other
cases that were not appealed, or were settled or otherwise abandoned before
trial. Estimates of total American deaths attributable to asbestos range from
200,000 to 265,000 (according to the March 1991 Report of the Judicial
Conference Ad Hoc Committee on Asbestos Litigation). The number of suits has
increased, although the leading epidemiological study, cited by attorneys on
both sides, suggests that deaths peaked in the 1990s. However, others contend
that deaths from asbestosis and mesothelioma have not yet peaked.
"Asbestos litigation today is, for the most part, a massively fraudulent
enterprise that can rightfully take its place among the pantheon of such great
American swindles as the Yazoo land frauds, Credit Mobilier and Teapot Dome,"
said Lester Brickman, a professor at Cardozo Law School, in a recent speech on
the phenomenon. For example, Baron & Budd, P.C., a renowned Dallas plaintiff's
firm, is alleged to have coached clients how to provide winning testimony
against asbestos defendants. In recent years, there have been many
scandals over asbestos litigation because of the number of cases involving
plaintiffs who had suffered no injury other than asymptomatic pleural plaques.
An investigation into claims filed for alleged silicosis found that 65% of the
plaintiffs claiming to be suffering from silicosis had previously recovered from
asbestos defendants by alleging that they had asbestosis. Many
attorneys, including Peter Angelos, have become rich because they established
lucrative relationships with unions that steered potential asbestos plaintiffs
to their law firms in exchange for questionable financial relationships with
union executives. In the mass screenings that would take place, it is
alleged that asbestos-related ailments were systematically overdiagnosed.
Because many companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in view of claims from
plaintiffs (some of whom may have been uninjured), and because some of the
earlier manufacturer bankruptcy proceedings underestimated future asbestos
liability, many seriously injured workers received as little as ten cents on the
dollar of the compensation due them.
Asbestos-related cases were a rare sight on the U.S. Supreme Court docket prior
to 1980, but since then, the Court has dealt with asbestos-injury cases in 1986,
1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, and 2002. The 1997 and 1999 cases both involved giant
settlement class actions that were designed to stabilize the liability of the
largest defendants. Both settlements were ultimately overturned by the Court
because they resolved the rights of future claimants who, because they were
currently unknown, could not be given the notice that due process requires.
Texas passed a reform bill requiring neutral medical screening in asbestos
claims. Georgia passed a reform bill that requires an out-of-state plaintiff to
provide "prima facie evidence of physical impairment" that shows "to a
reasonable degree of certainty" that exposure to asbestos was "a substantial
contributing factor" to the plaintiff's injuries. Plaintiffs' attorneys in the
state complain that this would foreclose "98%" of the pending claims, and that
the law is unconstitutional.
Congress is considering legislation, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution
Act of 2005, that would establish a $140 billion trust fund to supplant
litigation as a means to compensate victims of asbestos. Trial lawyers protest
that the trust fund would under-compensate injured workers, while some
conservatives argue that the trust fund does not do enough to prevent fraud;
would override state reforms in Texas, Ohio, and Georgia; and would be too
"leaky" to prevent future litigation problems.
Asbestos liability is one of the largest issues facing the global insurance
industry today, with the industry contending that many are suing because they
have been exposed but have not as yet contracted asbestos-related lung diseases,
which have latency periods of 10-40 years, and because lawyers spend millions
each year advertising to promote such lawsuits.
In mid-2004, a huge public outcry across Australia followed revelations at a New
South Wales government-sanctioned inquiry into the company James Hardie's
handling of its asbestos injury liabilities.
In Brazil, prohibition of extraction and use of asbestos is currently under
consideration.
In Japan too, recently there has been a spurt of lawsuits involving actual or
potential damage due to the use of asbestos in schools and public places,
following public outcry over asbestos-related deaths.
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