Legislation Concerning Asbestos Litigation

I am very appreciative when defense organizations make substantive articles available to the public on their websites. This month on the DRI website, the free feature article available is "The Fairness In Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2003", by Frank Winston, Jr. and William A. Schreiner, Jr., both of Shaw Pittman.

The article provides some analysis of pending federal legislation which would create a fund to resolve asbestos claims, and which would in exchange protect insurers and asbestos defendants from most future lawsuits. The fund would require between 52 and 74 billion dollars. The proposed litigation is under attack both by insurance associations and by trial lawyer groups. The article explains how the proposed system would work, the policy reasoning behind the legislation, and reasons why the legislation may not be effective.

Addendum:

On October 3, 2002, Business Insurance published an article concerning the insurance industries stance towards this legislation.