Alternatives to Asbestos Impairment Standards

Abstract

As I sit and listen to everything talked about today, I have to express my concern with what I see happening in asbestos litigation. I have seen a change in the litigation over the past twenty years. I have seen a change in the nature of the cases that started in the 1980s with World War II shipyard workers. I watched the litigation move to construction workers out of the building boom in the 1950s and 1960s. Then, I watched it move to what have been called "peripheral defendants," those who are named when plaintiffs' lawyers lose primary defendants and look for other defendants that might be held responsible. For example, because none of the traditional defendant manufacturers are still around, auto manufacturers and brake suppliers, so-called friction defendants, play a much bigger role in the litigation today. Friction cases are now actually some of the better cases we pursue for a remedy.