White House Pushes Flawed Asbestos Bill

In today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Andrew Schneider writes a surprisingly balanced piece about the asbestos bill the White House is trying to push through Congress--titled in typical Orwellian fashion "the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act." ("Bill would save firms billions," 1/31/04). Schneider even engages in research, something you don't see too often from reporters in my neck of the woods, especially on the issue of tort reform. In response to the criticism that many asbestos lawsuits are meritless, Schneider notes:

[A]n examination of court records and bankruptcy filings of companies plagued with asbestos complaints shows that thousands of suits are filed on behalf of former workers or family members who are clinically sick, disabled or have died from asbestos poisoning. Many of these people have or had asbestosis, where the lungs harden like a football, so they can no longer breathe and often drown in their own fluids. Others have lung cancer or mesothelioma, an always fatal, rapidly-spreading cancer of the outer lining of the lungs that is caused only by exposure to asbestos.

While some of the targets are small companies that may have used asbestos in something they sold, most of the defendants are among the nation's largest corporations. Tens of thousands of pages of internal documents show that many of the companies knew for years that their workers were being killed or sickened by asbestos and did little or nothing to warn them.

Critics of the suits say that huge law firms stamp out claims in cookie-cutter fashion, with little real care for the injured client they represent. But many lawyers, some from small firms in small towns, will often work for months or years to gather enough evidence to bring a case to court, which is often the only hope these people have.

There's much more in the article -- go read it.

Comments

[Federalist No. 84]

If you or a loved one has contraced cancer due to asbestos YOU NEED TO SEEK AN ATTORNEY NOW!

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[Evan]

Federalist: I deleted the spam comment to which you were responding. What a pain in the ass those spam commenters are. Mesothelioma would be too good a fate for them if you ask me.