Tort Reform

Over $70,000,000,000 has been paid out in damages since the 1970s for asbestos related injuries. Guess who received the lion's share of the funds.

Pat Cleary at RedState points out an editorial in today's Washington Post.

ANYONE WHO thinks the tort system can handle asbestos claims should consider some numbers from the Rand Corp. think tank. Of the $70 billion paid out in settlements for asbestos-related injuries since the 1970s, about $41 billion went to lawyers; only $29 billion went to sick people. A system of compensation that burns up more than half the dollars it consumes in administrative costs is utterly broken. The grotesque legal fees have contributed to the bankruptcy of 77 U.S. companies so far, costing thousands of workers their jobs. And this bonfire of inanity has not even brought solace to all the people who need it. Some who have developed cancer can't sue for compensation because they were exposed to asbestos by the federal government, which has legal immunity. Others can't sue because they were wronged by a company that has since gone out of business. Still others may die before they get what they deserve because their cases are crawling through the courts so slowly.

Where are all the trial lawyers that would normally be lining up to battle this sort of injustice in a class action suit? Attorney complaints against the unfairness of our society sound dreadfully hollow to me right about now.

No one expects trial lawyers to be paupers. We shouldn't have to think of them as thieves either.