Asbestos and Silica Litigation Reform

Studies have shown that up to 90 percent of recent asbestos claimants are not sick. Those who are sick face a depleted pool of assets as asbestos lawsuits have bankrupted an estimated 85 companies. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have responded by dragging many small and medium size companies into the litigation; more than 8,500 defendants have been named. Before it ends, the litigation may cost up to $195 billion–on top of the $70 billion spent through 2002–with approximately 58 percent of the total amount going to transaction costs, such as attorneys’ fees.

In recent years, some asbestos personal-injury lawyers have diversified their practices, filing claims alleging exposure to silica. Silica is present in sand, gravel, soil, and rocks. In its natural form, silica is not harmful, but when fragmented into tiny particles(such as through abrasive blasting, foundry
operations, or road construction and repair, and
other construction activities), silica can be
dangerous if repeatedly inhaled.

In many instances, plaintiffs’ lawyers have filed claims against both asbestos and silica defendants, although leading medical experts agree that it is a medical rarity for someone to have both asbestos-related and silica-related impairment.

In 2005, the manager of the federal silica multidistrict litigation, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack of the Southern District of Texas, recommended that all but one of 10,000 federal court silica claims be dismissed on remand because the plaintiffs’ diagnoses
were fraudulently prepared.