Despite talk of compromise in Congress, write the editorialists of the Washington Post (Oct. 20), reform of “the spectacularly broken asbestos litigation system” seems to remain out of reach for the moment. “The tort system has failed to provide asbestos victims predictable and fair compensation for the grievous injuries they have suffered even as it has saddled industry with gigantic liability from people who are not actually sick. … [It is] a system that now works to everyone’s detriment — a system in which trial lawyers, representing people who aren’t sick, sue companies that never made asbestos (the asbestos manufacturers themselves being long since insolvent).” See also “Frist asks labor counter-offer on asbestos”, Reuters/Forbes, Oct. 21; Michelle J. White, “Resolving the ‘Elephantine Mass'”, Regulation, Summer (PDF); Doug Bandow, “Quenching the asbestos fire”, syndicated/TownHall, Sept. 8.
“Asbestos meltdown”
Despite talk of compromise in Congress, write the editorialists of the Washington Post (Oct. 20), reform of “the spectacularly broken asbestos litigation system” seems to remain out of reach for the moment. “The tort system has failed to provide asbestos victims predictable and fair compensation for the grievous injuries they have suffered even as it […]
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Asbestos: send in the prosecutors?
Prof. Lester Brickman of Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law, a noted legal ethicist and the leading academic critic of the asbestos litigation, has a devastating new 137-page article out in the Pepperdine Law Review. His contention: mass attorn…