Florida Legislation Sets New Limits on Asbestos Su
Palm Beach, FL, June 13--With the stroke of a pen, an estimated 4,500 lawsuits will disappear from court dockets throughout the state next month, according to the Palm Beach Post.
A bill setting new legal tests for those who claim asbestos made them gravely ill will put about 75 percent of an estimated 6,000 cases in a holding pattern, said Miami attorney Susan Cole, who represents a dozen corporations that have been sued in Florida courts over illnesses caused by the once-popular material that is now a known carcinogen.
"What effect it has on the pending cases is that it puts a freeze on all of them," said Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Tim McCarthy, who has spent much of the last five years trying to rein in the cases that some claim are unjustly clogging courts throughout the state.
But, in the name of ridding frivolous cases from court dockets, many claim, the legislation that Gov. Jeb Bush has pledged to sign goes too far.
Hundreds of very sick people with legitimate claims against companies that lied to them about the risks of asbestos will be unable to sue to recover damages once the measure goes into effect July 1, advocates said.
Prized for its ability to resist fire, asbestos has been mined and used commercially since the 1880s for everything from tablecloths to toys. It is best known for its use as insulation in flooring, roofs and water pipes. By the time its harmful effects were widely publicized in the 1970s, an estimated 27 million workers had been exposed to the fibers, a 1982 study found.
However, though asbestos is easily inhaled, the diseases it causes sometimes don't manifest themselves for decades.
Miami attorney David Jagolinzer, who specializes in representing people whose health problems are linked to asbestos, said the legislature ignored established medical standards when it set new rules about what proof people must provide to show that asbestos destroyed their lungs. If they can't meet the standards, they can't sue.
"There are people in the state of Florida who are not going to be able to meet the medical criteria that the legislature has set even though doctors have said they are sick," he said.
Dr. Laura Welch, medical director of the union-backed Center to Protect Workers' Rights, agreed.
"It's pretty awful legislation," she said of the complex measure that most suspect was written by industry lobbyists because nearly identical measures are turning up in state legislatures across the country.
"The most generous view is that the legislature didn't know someone was pulling the wool over their eyes," she said. "I also have a sense that they believe that the disease is made up by trial lawyers."
The view was fueled by health screenings law firms conducted across the country, urging people to be tested for asbestosis, the most common — but often hard to detect — malady associated with asbestos exposure.
Suspicions were further aroused when lawyers filed scores of lawsuits in jurisdictions that seemingly had no connection to either the exposed worker or the company accused of making the worker sick.
Palm Beach County became a mecca for asbestos cases in 1997 when a Mississippi electrician dying of cancer won a record $31 million verdict against Owens-Corning Fiberglas Co.
The number of cases in the county peaked at 3,400 cases in 2002. McCarthy has reduced that number by dismissing cases that have no connection to the area.
"I don't know how many I've dismissed for improper venue," he said.
Roughly 500 cases are still pending and about 80 that he dismissed because they had no obvious connection to Palm Beach County are still on appeal, he said.
Courts like McCarthy's that specialize in asbestos cases are known in legal circles as "rocket dockets" because they are designed to move cases quickly. Critics say they are attractive to attorneys trying to win big settlements for their clients.
