Asbestos Reform Advocates Look To Regroup

Washington

Insurers are looking to Congress for the next step on asbestos litigation reform following termination of negotiations over S. 2290, the controversial bill that would have established a trust fund to resolve claims out of court.

It is not clear yet what will happen, said Gary Karr, a representative of the Washington-based American Insurance Association. Capitol Hill, he said, will have to make the call. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., are expected to meet to decide where to go next.

The field, Mr. Karr said, is wide open. The Senate could look to a new proposal or try to redraft the trust fund idea. For the insurance industry, he noted, the important objective is to get real reform enacted into law. “This crisis is not going away,” he said.

Anne Sittmann, a representative of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America in Des Plaines, Ill., added that the insurance industry remains unified and is committed to finding a solution that will provide certainty, finality, affordability, effectiveness and efficiency.

In a statement on the floor of the Senate, Sen. Frist said that while all the parties to the negotiations insurers, defendants and organized labor negotiated in good faith and made progress, there were gaps in claims values, projections and the amount of dollars needed to establish a trust.

However, he said efforts at finding a solution will continue. “We are committed to working together to determine whether a compromise can be reached that would provide sufficient payments to asbestos victims and certainty to companies.”

Meanwhile AIA President Robert Vagley said it is now clear a workable trust fund that establishes an efficient exclusive remedy for victims, as well as equity, certainty and finality for all stakeholders, is politically unattainable. Moreover, he said, it will become even less economically viable over time as more of the finite resources available to compensate true victims of asbestos are siphoned off by the “out-of-control litigation system.”

Marliss Browder, director of federal affairs for the Indianapolis-based National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, said NAMIC believes Congress must address the asbestos litigation crisis, and her group remains committed to working with Congress on meaningful reform.

Regarding the trust fund approach in S. 2290, she said all parties have conducted intense good faith negotiations and made significant progress. “But unfortunately, we seem to be far from reaching a solution,” she added.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, May 14, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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Asbestos Reform Advocates Look To Regroup

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