Asbestos litigation needs attention

Crowley Post-Signal

With all of the negative publicity recently coming from Baton Rouge, we believe that it is time to commend the Louisiana Legislature for taking some positive steps to reform a badly broken system.

Nationwide, asbestos litigation has besieged our court system, clogging court dockets with countless more suits inevitably to be filed. Many of these suits are on behalf of victims who can show no real injury. Their claims are for injuries they fear for those that may come in the future. Truly injured parties, the real victims of asbestos, are given no priority in the adjudication of their claims. Many of these people suffer, and some die while they await their trials well behind the countless lawsuits brought by the uninjured.

We want to be very clear: Asbestos related illnesses are serious and devastating. Persons who have been exposed to asbestos and show clear signs of asbestos related illnesses deserve speedy and full access to our court system. If successful in that arena, they deserve just and complete compensation for their pain and suffering.

Unfortunately, the asbestos litigation process has gone overwhelmingly awry. It has become an expensive process robbing potential real asbestos victims, wrecking retirement plans, accelerating bankruptcies, destroying small businesses and the numbers show that it is only getting worse.

The number of asbestos related bankruptcies is accelerating and they are everywhere. 67 companies have gone bankrupt as a result of asbestos liabilities. During the first 10 months of 2002, 15 companies facing significant asbestos related liabilities filed for bankruptcy. 47 states now have at least one facility affected by asbestos-related bankruptcy and as many as 60,000 jobs have been lost. The eventual job loss, according to a recent RAND Institute, could reach as high as 423,000 jobs.

The most devastating numbers show that this outrageously expensive crisis is not tied to the people who are truly sick. The number of mesothelioma cases has stayed at about 2,000 per year for the past decade. However, claims from people who do not have cancer make up 89 percent of the claims total.

A common sense and compassionate solution must start with a simple proposition: The truly sick from asbestos exposure should have full and timely access to our courts. And the only way to accomplish this goal is to provide medical criteria to make that determination.

The Louisiana Legislature has seized the initiative and sponsored legislation to provide for the medical criteria and fix this problem in Louisiana. We commend those legislators who have shown the courage and fortitude to tackle this problem, rather than waiting for those in Washington to do it for them. We urge you to contact your legislators and urge them to support this legislation.

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