Fighting for Victims' Rights

Fighting for Victims' Rights:


Mesothelioma law falls into two categories: regulatory statutes, which specify what steps industry must now take to protect employees; and personal injury law (known in legal terms as tort), allowing victims to take action against institutions responsible for their asbestos exposure as well as the manufacturers of the substance.

The Fairness in Asbestos Resolution Act (SB 852) was introduced by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) in April of 2005. This bill would have deprived citizens of the right to file suit against corporations for injuries related to asbestos. Instead, the federal government would have established a private trust fund, financed by insurance companies and responsible corporations, from which malignant mesothelioma and other asbestos victims would be compensated.


The bill's proponents claimed it would speed up the recovery process for claimants. However, such claimants would receive only a fraction of their deserved compensation, while the corporations who willfully and negligently exposed workers and their families to a substance they knew to be toxic would be absolved from any and all liability.

The bill died in the Senate in February, 2006, but was re-introduced by Specter in May of that year as SB 3274. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bill ten days later, but no action has been on it taken since.

Nonetheless, federal judges continue to rule in favor of corporate interests. A U.S. District Judge dismissed conspiracy charges against the owners of Montana's infamous Libby Mine, and disallowed scientific evidence as well as asbestos samples - in spite of documented facts showing that Libby residents suffer from respiratory disease and asbestos cancer at abnormally high rates.