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Last year, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee produced a delicately designed compromise on asbestos litigation that would establish a compensation fund for disease claims. The bill addressed a U.S. Supreme Court pleading to unlock a legal logjam that was crushing businesses and diverting money from the most serious victims. Republican and Democratic senators consulted with industry, labor unions, health-care groups, asbestos patients and their attorneys in proposing a $153 billion fund to be financed entirely by private entities in exchange for releasing them from current and future lawsuits. Another major feature of the bill was a ban on dangerous forms...

The catch-phrase for describing the health of the U.S. economy used to be, "If it's good for General Motors, it's good for America." Today, a revision is in order: "If it's good for the personal-injury lawyers, it's bad for America." The personal-injury lawyers represent perhaps 10 percent of all attorneys while doing 90 percent of the damage to the legal profession's reputation, says Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Once again, they're working the corridors of Congress to head off a long-delayed solution to the asbestos crisis. But Republican lawmakers are soldiering on, trying to create an asbestos trust fund that would...

Dr. Greg Nayden still chafes at the memory of a call from his brother, informing him that a highly critical Dallas newspaper story posted on the Internet told how Nayden had made $1.2 million in just two years by diagnosing every person he saw with asbestos-related lung disease. That's one of the many reasons, Nayden said, that he now wishes he'd never worked for American Medical Testing Inc., a now-defunct Mobile firm. "I've been made out to be a real crooked, unscrupulous doctor," Nayden said during one of several telephone interviews while spending a short vacation in Fort Morgan. In...

<p>Word is that Senate Republicans will soon attempt to revive their bid to solve the asbestos litigation mess. But before they agree to create a new asbestos trust fund, we think someone should remind them of the other times the government has gotten into this fool's game.</p>

"Hundreds of thousands (of industrial and construction workers), assembled through an unprecedented recruitment effort by plaintiff lawyers…have no discernable illness or impairment…" -- Lester Brickman, Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, in Pepperdine Law Review, December 2003. Asbestos litigation is in crisis. Fueled by powerful trial attorneys rewriting the books on tort law, some 730,000 asbestos claims have been filed to date, and most are made by healthy, unimpaired individuals. Worse, the flood of unmerited claims has bankrupted so many defendant companies that legitimate victims suffering from asbestos exposure have been squeezed out, unable to...

<p>WASHINGTON -- The United States is facing an "epidemic" of asbestos-caused diseases, with some 100,000 people expected to die in the next decade from their past exposure to the dangerous substance, according an analysis of health data by an environmental organization.</p>

<p>El Dorado Hills isn't likely to get a Superfund tag for its asbestos problem, federal officials say.</p> <p>Federal environmental officials said Wednesday night they do not expect any of El Dorado Hills' asbestos-tainted areas will get the notorious "Superfund site" label, mainly because the potential hazards are relatively easy to remedy.</p>

<p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering Superfund cleanups of El Dorado Hills schoolyards, parks and other public grounds contaminated with asbestos, the result of foothill development carved through veins of the hazardous minerals.</p> <p>EPA officials said they initially will evaluate the Community Center, Rolling Hills Middle School and Silva Valley Elementary School for possible inclusion on the National Priority List of Superfund sites, an uncoveted designation but one that brings significant federal dollars for toxic cleanups. The agency currently has no plans to inspect housing tracts and other private developments.</p>

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL - News), the world's No. 2 oilfield services company, on Thursday posted a wider fourth-quarter loss due to a $1.1 billion charge for a pending settlement of hundreds of thousands of asbestos injury claims. The Houston company reported a net loss of $947 million, or $2.17 per share, compared to a net loss of $616 million, or $1.42 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding the charge, Halliburton posted earnings per share of 34 cents. Wall Street analysts, on average, had forecast earnings per share of 32 cents, according to a survey by...

<p>Is it safe yet?</p> <p>No sooner do school and county officials say they've stamped out asbestos at an El Dorado Hills high school, it seems, than evidence to the contrary flares up.</p> <p>In the latest rekindling, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said earlier this month that it found high levels of naturally occurring asbestos where foot traffic and sports activities could kick up the mineral's cancer-causing fibers, creating a potential breathing hazard. The federal agency collected the soil samples a week after education officials waved state air test results as proof that Oak Ridge High School is safe.</p>

<p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has given El Dorado school officials 14 days to craft a plan for sealing many areas of asbestos-tainted soil they overlooked at Oak Ridge High School.</p> <p>In a letter released Tuesday, the agency directed the El Dorado Union High School District to pave, landscape or otherwise reduce the potential breathing hazard on at least 78 areas of the El Dorado Hills campus.</p>

<p>El Dorado Hills' high school has cancer-causing asbestos at "very high levels" on bare ground around sports bleachers, in playing areas and in numerous other outdoor locations that get a lot of foot traffic, federal environmental officials said Friday.</p> <p>The preliminary findings by the Environmental Protection Agency run counter to local officials' repeated declarations that they have eliminated the potential breathing hazard at Oak Ridge High School.</p>

We as trial lawyers, at both a state and national level, for a long period of time, have felt we had political representation by those who shared our political philosophy and were either in control of the House of Representatives or the Senate or the White House. Today is a different age. The majority in the Senate, the House and the White House are clearly not representing our clients’ interests or ours.

Dear (name witheld), Thank you for contacting me about the asbestos litigation issue. I appreciate hearing from you.There have been numerous legislative proposals that seek to address asbestos litigation. One of these proposals is S.1125, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2003("FAIR ACT") introduced by Senator Orrin Hatch. S.1125 was refered to the Senate Judiciary Committee and on June 4th, the committee held a hearing on the bill. As you may know, the judiciary committee is currently in the process of considering S.1125.Asbestos litigation is a very complex problem. (Exactly why I'm not sure, but I'll go on...

Senate Republicans are desperately trying to beat back determined efforts by the Democratic Party and two of its most important wholly-owned subsidiaries in the battle to bring some sort of reason to the insane asbestos litigation problem. If the giant trial lawyer and labor union lobbies have their way, Senator Orrin Hatch's bill will either die in committee, or reach the floor in such a form that its passage will be unlikely. The point of the Hatch bill is to take all asbestos litigation out of the courts and deal with it through a special fund which would be established...

The collapse of the World Trade Center twin towers brought the issue of asbestos back into the spotlight, both for the harm it may have prevented and the harm it may have caused. With the May 30 completion of clean-up efforts at the twin towers, it is appropriate to examine the wide range of asbestos issues that have affected U.S. citizens to date, and will continue to affect us in the future. The most effective fireproofing In the 1940s, the late Herbert Levine invented spray fireproofing with wet asbestos. A remarkably strong flame retardant, asbestos was used to insulate steel...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. is eliminating 1,500 jobs, or more than 5 percent of its work force, and will leave the property-casualty reinsurance business. The financial services company said Monday that the job cuts will mean 850 people will lose their jobs by the end of the quarter and another 650 vacant positions will be eliminated. An additional 100 employees in the reinsurance division are at risk, officials said, as the company tries to sell the unit. Nearly all the job cuts will come in...

<p>Despite concerns about adding staff during a period of budget cuts, El Dorado County supervisors have agreed to hire a full-time air quality engineer to manage long-term projects, including the monitoring of naturally occurring asbestos.</p> <p>The supervisors also agreed Tuesday to send a letter to the state and federal environmental protection agencies asking them to integrate their policies on monitoring naturally occurring asbestos. The letter also asks that the agencies provide the county Air Quality Management District with the resources and funding to meet monitoring requirements.</p>

March 11, 2003 Justices Refuse to Limit Employers' Liability for Asbestos ExposureBy LINDA GREENHOUSE ASHINGTON, March 10 — A strong effort by industry and insurance groups to persuade the Supreme Court to limit employers' liability for damages from asbestos failed today when the justices ruled that some workers who have noncancerous asbestos-related disease can recover damages based on their fear of eventually developing cancer. The 5-to-4 decision came in a case that applies only to railroad workers, who are covered by a particular federal statute, the Federal Employers' Liability Act. But its significance was broader, indicating the majority's reluctance to...

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN SENATORIAL COMMITTEE UPDATE6 MARCH 2003GOING ON RECORD Senator George Allen Chairman Good Morning, Today, Republican Senators will file for cloture on Miguel Estrada's nomination. Republican aides are unclear whether or not they have the 60 votes needed to end debate on the Estrada nomination.  By filing for cloture Republicans will make Democrats go on the record in support of the filibuster of Miguel Estrada.  Republicans plan to file future cloture motions if this one fails. Have a great day. Court *******GOP to focus on Tax Cut 03/06/03 Source: CNN By: Staff Writer This article has been excerpted Top...