Free Republic

A Mississippi plaintiffs firm recently sent out a handful of “good news/bad news” letters to clients in silicosis cases, though it’s a bit hard to tell which bit was intended to be the good news. The individuals, read the letter, “unfortunately” don’t have silicosis, an incurable lung disease. The flip side: no disease means no lawsuit and no potential payout.

......the lawyers signed up tens of thousands of "victims" for class-action lawsuits — picking up along the way some plaintiffs who had also filed claims as victims of asbestos. U.S. Silica, the country's largest sand maker, was flooded by more than 20,000 lawsuits in a short period that began in November 2002...But some judges, notaly Clinton appointee Janis Jack of the Federal District Court in Corpus Christi, Texas, aren't letting the trial lawyers run freely with silicosis as they did with asbestosis. Lawsuits on behalf of people diagnosed with asbestosis (which isn't always the same thing as actually having it)...

Back in June, federal Judge Janis Graham Jack disparaged nearly all of 10,000 claims for the rare lung disease as having been "manufactured for money." She also told the lawyers involved that federal prosecutors wanted access to the documents and X-rays surrounding this "fraud." So imagine Judge Jack's surprise to discover at a hearing last Monday that Houston attorney Scott Hooper -- one of several tort lawyers who brought the claims -- had removed more than 1,300 X-rays from a court depository. The judge had specifically denied Mr. Hooper's request to take the X-rays. Ms. Jack told Mr. Hooper that...

Congratulations to... Republicans Joe Barton and Ed Whitfield, who... opened a probe into the nation's asbestos and silicosis claims. Their decision to investigate the people responsible for recruiting and falsely diagnosing tens of thousands of plaintiffs is a major step toward exposing this fraud. Credit for alerting the Congressmen to this issue goes to Texas federal Judge Janis Graham Jack, who earlier this summer surprised the tort bar by publicly excoriating 10,000 silicosis claims in front of her court. Messrs. Barton and Whitfield have now followed up with letters to the doctors and screening companies that helped gin up these...

A congressional committee has asked more than a dozen doctors and screening companies to turn over information regarding their involvement in hundreds of silicosis lawsuits that are at the center of court proceedings in U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack's Corpus Christi courtroom. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville, Ky., chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee, sent letters to 12 doctors last week asking them to explain how a diagnosis of silicosis is made, the number of people they have diagnosed with the disease and the number of...

U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack issued a stinging rebuke of doctors and plaintiff lawyers involved in a massive set of silicosis lawsuits, a move that could send re-verberations throughout the nation in other tort class actions. In a 249-page ruling made public Friday, Jack determined the plaintiffs' attorneys and the doctors involved in diagnosing about 10,000 potentially sick workers hatched a scheme aimed at making money and had no interest in protecting their clients. "These diagnoses were about litigation rather than healthcare," she wrote. "It is apparent that truth and justice had very little to do with these diagnoses...

A federal grand jury has been convened in Manhattan to consider possible criminal charges arising out of civil litigation over exposure to silica and asbestos, according to lawyers involved in the civil cases. The grand jury has subpoenaed documents from at least one of the companies that screened people who later claimed they had suffered injuries as a result of exposure to silica, a material that can cause respiratory disease and that is used in making glass, paints, ceramics and other materials. The federal investigation comes amid questions about some silica-related claims that emerged in federal court proceedings in Corpus...

Defense wants $1.1M to cover companies' costs from February U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack could issue a written opinion on a set of silicosis cases by the end of April. Jack, who has been presiding over the cases, has called doctors' behavior in diagnosing nearly 10,000 patients fraudulent and stunning. However, she said Monday that she probably does not have the authority to throw the cases out of court and probably could only go so far as to express her thoughts on the cases. "I feel like I have to sanction the behavior from the bench, and I'm going...

CORPUS CHRISTI (AP) — Several doctors have been called to federal court to explain some 10,000 diagnoses of silicosis after one doctor said he'd diagnosed more than one-third of that number without seeing the patients or being knowledgeable about the lung disorder. Lawsuits claiming sand dust ruined the lungs of miners, sandblasters, roofers and other works hangs in the balance of the hearings beginning Wednesday. (snip) Lawyers for more than 30 mining and manufacturing companies named as defendants hope the three days of questioning will show the bulk of the lawsuits against their clients are based on shoddy, if not...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill to establish a $140 billion asbestos compensation fund was undergoing a rewrite on Wednesday after warnings that a provision affecting claims for silica, another lung-scarring mineral, could derail the legislation. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said he thought he could solve the problem and save his plan to set up a trust fund to replace asbestos litigation. But other Republicans expressed exasperation with the process, charging Democrats were moving the goalposts each time bipartisan agreement on the fund seemed close. ``Right now I don't think it (Specter's proposal) has much support on the part...

Companies battling lawsuits brought by people claiming injuries caused by exposure to asbestos or silica have long contended that they are the victims of fraud. The companies finally have evidence that their concerns may be real. Thousands of people who have said they were injured by one potentially lethal material are apparently double-dipping - now asserting separately that they were injured by the other. More than half the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit in Texas seeking compensation for exposure to silica - used in making glass, paint, ceramics and other materials - previously filed claims against a trust set up...