Uproar over the Hatch Asbestos Bill -- MesoLink.org -- 05-01-04

During the 1960s and 70s, many workers were exposed to asbestos on a regular basis; and as a direct result, thousands of them have now been diagnosed with the deadly and life ending disease Mesothelioma. To make matters even worse, many of the companies and manufactures responsible for both the creation of products containing asbestos, as well as exposing employees to these deadly products in their day to day activities, have been shown to have had knowledge of the fatal effects since as early as the 1920’s. Yet these multi-million, and even billion, dollar companies continued to risk the lives of their employees by exposing them to this deadly material for many years thereafter… With no real protection or precautions in place. As a result, many of these affected former workers have been diagnosed with one of the deadliest forms of cancer known to man, Mesothelioma.

In order to compensate in some small way for the life sentence bestowed upon them, many Mesothelioma suffers have been able to successfully sue and receive judgments in the form of millions of dollars against many of these companies. This compensation is used in many important ways by those who receive it; to cover the extraordinarily large medical bills associated with their battle for survival, to help provide some form of security for families that have in many cases had their sole provider ripped away from them in less than 6 months, and to help recognize the pain and suffering that many of these patients and their loved ones have had to endure.

Recently, however, the "Hatch Asbestos Bill" was introduced before the United States Congress (The House | The Senate): This bill questions whether or not the compensation paid by these large companies that have effectively sentenced many of their workers to death is fair, and sets out to create a new system for dealing with both Mesothelioma sufferers and others affected by exposure to asbestos.

Up until recently, victims of this cancer were able to file a lawsuit against the company (or, in many cases, the companies) in question and take them to court to receive compensation for their illness. In many instances, these companies would choose to instead reach an out of court settlement with the Mesothelioma patient, rather than risk losing a battle in front of a jury and potentially losing hundreds of millions of dollars. (One recent Mesothelioma settlement that was brought to trial was for a quarter of a billion US dollars, or $250 million. This amount was lowered on appeal, but the case would have undoubtedly settled for significantly less had the parties reached an agreement prior to trial) This process resulted in Mesothelioma settlements and judgments ranging from several hundred thousand dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars, with the average suit bringing around $2.5 million to $3.0 million dollars to the affected party.

In essence this paltry sum of money, while large in comparison to many people’s income but tiny in comparison to the annual income of these corporations, is the amount that these patients will receive in order to die; Meaning that a life is worth a set dollar amount to these companies. And now, with the introduction of the Hatch Asbestos Bill, the opportunity has presented itself for these large companies to change not only the amount received by their victims, but whether a victim will receive any compensation at all.

This bill, introduced in 2003 by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) who titled it the “Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act” and is also known as Senate Bill 1125, works through the development of a special asbestos court and trust.

The trust will be funded entirely by the corporations who are considered responsible for the exposure to asbestos that causes the deadly disease Mesothelioma and several other ailments that are not life threatening. These companies will be required to pay a set amount into the fund, an amount which many have called ‘grossly inadequate’ to cover the amount of exposure that they have caused, and will thereafter be protected against further injury claims; meaning that they will never be able to be held responsible for their actions to a degree that could even remotely compare to the harm they have caused.

The asbestos court administrators (Not Mesothelioma lawyers representing those who have been harmed nor judges looking out for the public good) will then decide both who gets a payout (as well as who doesn’t receive any compensation at all) from this trust and how much the life of each victim is worth by determining the amount of money that they will receive. The most serious sufferers, those who have be sentenced to die a long and painful death through contracting Mesothelioma, will receive at most one million dollars ($1 Million), and some victims of these corporations with less serious exposure and symptoms may receive little to nothing. There will be specific criteria which must be met by the victims of these companies in order to even qualify for a payout; including meeting the requirements in regards testing, meeting the required level of occupational exposure and many more.

It is thought by many that oppose this action that the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act may in fact exclude many victims who would have otherwise been entitled to compensation for their pain, suffering, and expenses, as well as for the financial security of their families after they had passed on.

Another concern held by many, above and beyond the fact that many victims will not receive the compensation that they are entitled to, nor, if they do, will it be of a sufficient dollar amount to cover their medical expenses let alone anything else, is that the sheer workload and set-up of this administrator based “court” will delay the processing and payouts of whatever small amount of money the victims will be able to claim. With many sufferers potentially missing out on payouts that they may have otherwise have claimed successfully, it is ironically the companies responsible for the asbestos exposure that stand to make money from this, due to the immunity against further legal claims and court action against them.

The delays that will be faced by Mesothelioma victims could become totally unviable, particularly during the early operation of this system. The backlog of claims could run to over half a million, plus there will be the arrival of new claims on a daily basis. The additional factor that will contribute towards hefty delays is that there are no set deadlines for processing or payout of claims, so many victims could be dead before their claim is even processed.