RAND Sees Asbestos Claims Rising
A leading think tank has found that the more than 500,000 asbestos injury plaintiffs with $21 billion in claims in the United States may be only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, it is possible that less than half of all potential asbestos claims have been presented to date, the RAND Institute for Civil Justice says.
The Santa Monica, Calif.-based groups findings were disclosed in a recent report, “Asbestos Litigation in the U.S.: A New Look at an Old Issue.”
RAND found that annual asbestos claims filings as a whole have been rising “sharply” since 1990, and acknowledged that “no one knows the total amount spent to date to resolve asbestos claims.”
Examining asbestos-related bankruptcies, the RAND report found the number has soared in the past 18 months. At least 41 asbestos defendant corporations have filed for bankruptcy, with eight of these filing since Jan. 1, 2000.
Additionally, the report found that asbestos litigation is spreading across industries. Early claims generally targeted companies that mined asbestos or manufactured, distributed or installed asbestos insulation and other products. Defendants now include building-product manufacturers and distributors, construction contractors, auto parts makers, retailers, insurers and others.
According to the report, “there is reason to believe that non-traditional defendants are paying an increasing share of the costs to resolve asbestos injury claims.” In addition, with so many companies going bankrupt, some plaintiffs' attorneys reported they are seeking more money from non-bankrupt defendants.
Although the RAND report could not predict whether the trend of sharp rises in claims filed will continue, it nevertheless found the recent changes in filing rates has influenced expectations of the parties, attorneys and business analysts.
The RAND report concluded that:
The fair and efficient resolution of asbestos claims remains “a significant policy question.”
All of the major asbestos defendants will likely be in bankruptcy within 24 months.
Current bankruptcies present an opportunity to review and rethink strategies for resolving the claims.
The full text of the RAND report is available at www.rand.org.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, September 10, 2001. Copyright 2001 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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