Posted on 07/16/2002 10:18:19 AM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
"In late October, a Mississippi jury ordered three firms, including oil-services giant Halliburton and manufacturer 3M, to pay six plaintiffs $25 million apiece. ...What made jaws drop was that the plaintiffs weren't even sick their X-rays just showed they stood an increased chance of getting sick. 'Most of these guys have not missed a day of work in their lives,' their lawyer said. ... To unearth new clients for lawyers, screening firms advertise in towns with many aging industrial workers or park X-ray vans near union halls. To get a free X-ray, workers must often sign forms giving law firms 40 percent of any recovery. One solicitation reads: 'Find out if YOU have MILLION DOLLAR LUNGS!'" ("Looking for some million-dollar lungs", U.S. News, Dec. 17).
Some say asbestos defendants should try to avoid angering juries by paying claims without a fight, but an attorney for power plant maker Babcock & Wilcox said an uncritical approach to claims had proved too expensive for his now-bankrupt client: "In the past, you literally filled out a form in five minutes that stated the claimant had a note from the doctor saying he was coughing and had other symptoms and showed that he worked at the site. It took five to 10 minutes to fill out the form that would routinely lead to checks for thousands of dollars." (Terry Brennan, "Firms Wary of Challenging Asbestos Claims", The Deal, Nov. 13). And battling continues in a case (see Feb. 12-13) in which B&W and other asbestos defendants have attempted to turn the tables on leading plaintiff's firms, arguing that they have violated racketeering laws by coaching clients' testimony and by threatening retaliation against companies that seek a legislative solution to the litigation morass. (Mark Hamblett, "Asbestos Companies Bring RICO Suit Against Plaintiffs' Firms", New York Law Journal, Sept. 6). This spring defendant law firms won a court order prohibiting the plaintiff companies from questioning their former, as well as their current, employees without counsel being present -- i.e., even if the former employees are eager to spill the beans they will not be allowed to do so except in the presence of someone representing their former employer. That certainly should put a chill on whistleblowing (Mark Hamblett, "Employees of Law Firms Charged With Racketeering Shielded From Interviews Without Counsel", New York Law Journal, April 11).
Plus: Dallas alt-weekly Observer, which had run some of the best journalism on the Baron & Budd client-coaching asbestos scandal, returned with a terrific follow-up in March which we've unconscionably delayed in linking (Thomas Korosec, "Homefryin' with Fred Baron", Dallas Observer, March 29). (DURABLE LINK)
Note the time and date of this article.....long after Cheney had sold his stock, under pressure from RATS and the press. Conflict of interest, ya know?
They conviently forgot that one of the main reasons the stock dropped, was NOT accounting discrepencies, but a drop in drilling and TRIAL LAWYER attacks against a Halliburton subsidiary.
Trial Lawyers of course being the #1 RAT contributor.
Where's the concern for the "little people" hurt by the resulting bankruptcy and/or decline of our corporations? Do the innocent stockholders count less than the trial lawyers and Democrat beneficiaries who line their pockets at the expense of these victims?
What about the products these companies made? Products that saved lives and made our lives better are no longer being made...like the asbestos spray that experts claim may have prevented the collapse of the WTC towers.
The trial lawyers have called themselves the fifth branch of the US government. When we're lenient on our enemies to protect our nation from trial lawyers who would leak classified US info to save a mass murderer, when trial lawyers look at our industries, our consumer markets and see $$$$ without any concern or accountability for the consequences of their greed...it's time to kick these greedy unelected trial lawyers out of OUR courtrooms.
America's top asbestos producer, Johns Manville, was forced into bankruptcy in 1982. By 1992, Lloyds of London was averaging nearing $3 billion a year in losses, due mostly to asbestos claims.
Asbestos litigation has pushed at least 54 companies into bankruptcy, and judgments are often imposed with little regard for proof of wrongdoing or causation. Encouraged by porous legal standards, asbestos attorneys have filed claims for more than 1.4 million persons, against more than 1,400 companies.
In 2000, the four major companies sent into bankruptcy by asbestos were Armstrong World Industries (construction products), Babcock & Wilcox (boilers), Burns and Roe (engineering and construction), and Pittsburgh Corning (glass insulation). In 2001, asbestos litigation casualties included the chemical and materials giant W.R. Grace, the prominent construction materials company G.A.F., the gypsum wallboard maker USG, and the auto-parts maker Federal-Mogul.
Just in the past six months, Fortune 500 victims of the asbestos litigation monster have seen sudden drops in their stock prices. Hit with a Texas-sized verdict last December, Halliburton stock abruptly dropped 43 percent.
Scams, Scalawags, and an all-too-gullible Public...famous frauds sold to America ,backhoe's DUBOB links.
Who's Being Burned by Asbestos Lawsuits?
The Job Eating Asbestos Blob
Halliburton stock hits 15-year low amid asbestos liability worriesAP, Jan. '02.
You make some very good points. The notion that the RATS are the party of the little guy is so much BS. They sell out the black inner city kids and keep vouchers out of the education bill, for the milk and honey of NEA union cash.
They sell out small farmers and give the vast majority of the Farm Bill to the wealthy agra farms or wealthy non-farmer acreage owners.
They claim to "fight for the lower & middle" classes, while they hop on corporate jets to go to their latest conference.
They sell out women across the board, while they turn a blind eye to a sexual abuser and rapist who happen to be their leader.
They sell out rank & file union members by killing ANWR, which could have delivered some 750,000 union jobs, not to mention strengthen our economy by stabilizing energy prices, not to mention alieviated oil blackmail by the middle eastern producers.
They sell out national security by fighting any defense spending, in favor of social welfare programs.
Sorry, got a little riled up.
If anyone should be damaged from it it would be me having breathed hundreds of pounds of dry asbestos fines between 30 and 40 years ago and I have no ill effects from it. It's nothing but crap science and greedy lawyers.
I figured as much. One of these days we're gonna wake up and put an end to this crap.
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