What Constitutes “Junk Litigation”?

As we reported previously, a bill passed by the Georgia State Legislature (HB 416) bars asbestos victims from suing corporations unless they already have symptoms of an asbestos disease.

Cook County, Illinois, is following suit. Judge William Maddux is now sidelining all asbestos cases in which the plaintiff has no actual symptoms. In addition, he is denying continuances more frequently, allowing counsel no more than a year in which to prepare their cases. (The difficulty of this becomes apparent when one understands that many–if not most–asbestos cases involve over fifty defendants.)

Part of the problem is the sheer number of asbestos suits being filed. In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, for example, there were 37,000 cases pending at the end of 2006.

Cook County, however, which pro-corporate politicians and neo-conservatives consider to be a “judicial hellhole”, had only between 710 and 800.

Judge Maddux says that by weeding out the “junk lawsuits”–i.e., those in which plaintiffs show no symptoms–cases in which the plaintiff is actually suffering from a disease can be handled more efficiently and in a more timely manner.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,’” says Judge Maddux, who oversees all of the county’s asbestos lawsuits. “Let’s get justice.”

Other courts across the nation are starting to follow the precedent set in Georgia and Cook County, Illinois.

The controversy and objection here has to do with the nature of asbestos diseases, which typically have a very long latency period. Asbestosis may not manifest itself for 10 to 20 years; symptoms of mesothelioma may not show up for 40 years or more.

A large part of this is connected with what passes for “health care” in the U.S., which is for-profit, extravagantly priced and denied to those who cannot pay and/or have “pre-existing conditions” (including asbestos exposure). Perhaps if Congress were to sign on to and pass H.R. 676, the Kucinich-Conyers “Medicare for All” bill, many of these so-called “junk lawsuits” would be unnecessary.

As things stand, however, the private, for profit health insurers can charge what they like and pick and choose whom they will cover. Those who know they have been exposed to asbestos but have yet to manifest symptoms must usually pay for health monitoring and early treatment themselves.

Source

Sachdev, Armeet. “County’s Courts Win Some Breathing Room.” Chicago Tribune, 26 March 2007.

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