October 30, 2008
About 2 weeks ago we posted about the Ohio Supreme Court decision that a 2004 law that imposed stricter rules on asbestos-related lawsuits could be imposed retroactively on cases already filed. Today we see some of the results of that decision.
The law requires that plaintiffs provide testimony from medical experts at trial who personally treated the claimant. In addition, the law only allows cases to proceed if there is specific medical evidence that asbestos exposure has caused mesothelioma or another serious health problem.
Thousands of asbestos lawsuits were filed before the law was passed on September 2, 2004. Since the supreme court decision, over 30,000 of these lawsuits have been dismissed by the county courts. The dismissed lawsuits involve cases where the plaintiffs had not been diagnosed with an asbestos-related injury such as mesothelioma or asbestosis.
Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is caused by asbestos exposure either directly, usually from work exposure, or indirectly when a worker carries the asbestos home at the end of the day. Cancer cells develop in the mesothelium which is a protective lining around most of the body’s internal organs. The most common area for this to occur is the lining around the lungs. Unfortunately, usually by the time it is discovered the patient’s cancer has developed too much and, for most people, a cure isn’t possible.
It should be noted that these lawsuits dismissed under the supreme court ruling can be refiled if the plaintiffs have symptoms of an asbestos-related disease that can be established under the 2004 law.
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Asbestos, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, lawsuits | Tagged: "asbestos health dangers", Asbestos, asbestos exposure, Asbestos Litigation, Asbestosis, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, mesothelium, Ohio Supreme Court | 
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Posted by Dave Austin
October 28, 2008
The federal criminal trial against W.R. Grace has been scheduled for February of 2009. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula said Friday he wants jury selection in the case to begin Feb. 19, with the trial starting the following Monday.
He said that now that pretrial motions have been dealt with, he wants to get to trial and has told the attorneys to be ready. He is planning on the trial taking about 3 months with breaks in the schedule for holidays and a March hearing on Grace’s bankruptcy case.
This trial involves public exposure to vermiculite which was mined by Grace in Libby, Montana. In separate earlier agreements, Grace had agreed to put aside between 1.8 and 3 billion dollars into a trust that will be used to settle lawsuits for individuals who have suffered from asbestosis and/or mesothelioma from using the Grace products.
Mesothelioma is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos either directly or indirectly through family members who worked with the material. A mesothelioma cancer diagnosis can be made years after a family member carried home asbestos dust or fibers on their clothing, shoes, skin or in their hair. Usually by the time mesothelioma is diagnosed, the patient has only a short time to live, 12 to 18 months average. Because it takes so long after exposure to be diagnosed, many mesothelioma attorneys expect that mesothelioma lawsuits will continue for many years to come.
Another agreement approved in June requires Grace to pay another 250 million dollars to settle lawsuits brought to clean up Libby, Montana where asbestos was mined by Grace. At the peak of production, the mine produced 500,000 pounds of asbestos a day through the mill and released as much as 24,000 pounds a day of dust from the mill stack. About 1900 men worked at the mine and x-rays of those who had been there 21 plus years showed that 92% of them had signs of lung disease.
Leave a Comment » | Asbestos, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, lawsuits | Tagged: Asbestos, Asbestosis, Libby Montana, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, mesothelioma lawsuit, Mesothelioma Lawyer, vermiculite, WR Grace | Permalink
Posted by Dave Austin
October 16, 2008
The Ohio Supreme Court this week has ruled that a 2004 law that imposed stricter rules on asbestos-related claims can be applied retroactively to those cases filed before the law was passed.
The state Supreme Court said Wednesday the law was valid because the changes were “remedial and procedural” and not in violation of the Ohio Constitution, which bars retroactive laws that change the nature or substance of a law.
The law in question, passed in September of 2004, requires the medical expert to actually treat the claimant instead of merely reading the medical records and the claimant is required to offer specific medical evidence that their condition was caused by asbestos exposure.
In Ohio there are about 40,000 cases that had been filed prior to law being passed and many of those are likely to be dismissed as a result of this week’s ruling.
Linda Ackison had filed a wrongful death suit in May of 2004 against Dayton Malleable and others claiming that long-term exposure to asbestos at work had contributed to the illness and death of her husband, Danny.
Richard Schuster, an attorney for Dayton Malleable called the ruling significant for the economy of Ohio as well as for the companies involved in the suit.
“For the businesses located here in Ohio, it will allow the cases to come off their books and allow them to focus on doing business and, hopefully, hiring people here in Ohio,” he said. “It really focuses the attention on those people who are ill, who have a real disease, and allows those cases to move through the courts, which have been clogged up by people who weren’t sick.”
Vin Green, an attorney for Ackison, condemned the ruling saying that the decision was a ruling on the side of big business and against the well-being of Ohio citizens who have been injured by asbestos exposure. He also called it “completely and totally inaccurate” to say that those filing asbestos claims weren’t sick. “If you have damage to the lining of your lungs, you are sick,” he said.
In Georgia, the retroactive portion a similar law was overturned and the legislature then passed a new law. Kansas has a similar law not yet challenged and a similar Florida law is being challenged in the courts.
Leave a Comment » | Asbestos, Court, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, lawsuits | Tagged: Asbestos, Asbestosis, Dayton Malleable, Georgia Supreme Court, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, Ohio Supreme Court | Permalink
Posted by Dave Austin
October 13, 2008
In Japan, a study of 70 individuals has found that the death rate was higher for those who were living near an asbestos pipe manufacturing plant. These individuals had lived near the plant for about 20 years, had never worked in the plant and died of mesothelioma.
Drs. Norio Kurumatani and Shinji Kumagal found that those residents who were within 300 meters of the asbestos plant first showed signs of mesothelioma over four decades after the first year of residence near the plant. The death rates from mesothelioma that were recorded for the study were 41 times higher than the normal death rate for women and 14 times higher for men.
The rate of mesothelioma deaths decreased as the distance from the plant increased. Those at greatest risk of exposure were those living within 1.5 miles of the plant.
Because of it’s heat resistant quality, asbestos fibers were used for many years in all sorts of building materials such as insulation and fireproofing until asbestos was discovered to cause asbestosis and mesothelioma.
Any individuals who worked directly in an asbestos producing plant are at the highest risk of developing cancer from exposure to fibers, which can penetrate the lungs and the surrounding linings causing this rare form of cancer.
The findings of this study are published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and, according to Drs. Norio Kurumatani and Shinji Kumagal, support the connection between asbestos exposure from the plant and the increased death rates from mesothelioma.
Kubota Corporation, which formerly operated the plant, has created a compensation fund for those individuals who resided near the plant and suffered from mesothelioma.
Leave a Comment » | Asbestos, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, Uncategorized | Tagged: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medic, Asbestos, Asbestosis, Kubota, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, second hand exposure to asbestos | Permalink
Posted by Dave Austin
October 7, 2008
Today both The Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Broadcasting System had news about a new asbestos compensation bill being proposed and introduced into the Victorian Parliament. The Asbestos Diseases Compensation Bill would make compensation to victims of asbestos-related diseases fairer allowing them to seek damages for the full extent of asbestos diseases – asbestosis, mesothelioma and lung cancer. Workcover Minister Tim Holding says the bill is more fair to sufferers and their families.
“At the moment, a worker has to make a decision as to whether to claim damages at the point at which they are diagnosed with asbestosis or to wait and see whether they are one of the small number of workers who go on to develop mesothelioma,” he said.
“And that’s a very unfair choice.”
Under the proposed new law, a person could file a claim more than once if their health condition gets worse. A claim for damages could be filed when diagnosed with asbestosis and, if the disease progresses to mesothelioma, file another claim for damages.
Because it usually takes many years for any signs or symptoms of asbestos-related diseases to appear, it is often too late for medical intervention. Mr. Holding said that these laws will alllow people at imminent risk of death to have their cases heard quickly. The law would also clarify what happens when a person who started a claim dies before the claim is resolved.
Leave a Comment » | Asbestos, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, legislation | Tagged: "asbestos health dangers", Asbestosis, Australia, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, Mesothelioma News, The Sydney Morning Herald, Victorian Parliament | Permalink
Posted by Dave Austin
October 6, 2008
Starting last week, employers in the United Kingdom will no longer be legally required to store their insurance records for forty years. While this may help in cutting business red tape, it means that those suffering from the killer disease mesothelioma will find it more difficult to trace insurance records. This then means that dying victims will lose valuable time in processing their claims.
Roger Maddocks is an industrial lawyer in Newcastle. He said, “Employers will no longer have to keep backdated evidence of their Employers’ Liability Insurance, and this means we will not easily be able to identify the insurer responsible for the time at which exposure occurred.” He has also suggested that insurers should be required to place money in a centralized fund that would be a safety net for asbestos victims when insurers cannot be traced.
Leave a Comment » | Asbestos, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, legislation | Tagged: Asbestos, Asbestosis, Mesothelioma, Mesothelioma Lawyer, pleural plaque | Permalink
Posted by Dave Austin
