Asbestos lawsuits provide a case study of the
impact of toxic tort litigation on U.S. industry. Most people are under the
impression that the asbestos lawsuits that clogged U.S. courts and caused
numerous corporate bankruptcies in the 1980s are a thing of the past. Yet,
according to the Wall
Street Journal, “desperately ill plaintiffs have been eclipsed by a
huge and growing number of relatively healthy people seeking awards for
possible future illnesses.”7 Since January
2000, personal injury lawyers representing these individuals have “pushed at
least 20 companies that sold or used asbestos products into bankruptcy
protection…on top of 40 other asbestos-related corporate bankruptcies since the
mid-seventies.”8 Now, “the sickest asbestos
victims are…collecting far less than comparable victims did in the
1990s.”9