<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"There might not have been a vote, but lawmakers heard testimony this week over legislation aimed at preventing &ldquo;double-dipping&rdquo; by asbestos claimants.<br /><br />Sponsored by Rep. Dwight Kay, R-Glen Carbon, House Bill 153 would require plaintiffs seeking compensation for their asbestos-related injuries to disclose their trust claims information within 30 days of the start of discovery in their lawsuits.<br /><br />The bill, modeled after recently-passed legislation in Ohio, intends to prevent plaintiffs from filing suits against businesses in court and going after money in the trusts bankrupted companies created to compensate asbestos victims.<br /><br />Kay previously said he was &ldquo;flabbergasted&rdquo; that there are two avenues for claimants to seek damages and that more transparency is needed given the size of asbestos dockets in Cook and Madison counties.<br /><br />He testified in support of his bill on Wednesday in the House Judiciary Committee, which also heard from Todd Maisch with the Illinois Chamber of Commerce; Brian McGuire, the president of Tooling &amp; Manufacturing Association; and Mark Behrens, an attorney with Shook, Hardy &amp; Bacon in Washington D.C.<br /><br />Behrens testified on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce&rsquo;s Institute for Legal Reform, which owns The Record.<br /><br />He told members of the Judiciary Committee that by the end of 2011, nearly 100 companies with asbestos liabilities had filed bankruptcy. A recent trend in asbestos litigation, he said, involves the creation of trusts set up in bankruptcy to pay claims against former asbestos defendants.<br /><br />&ldquo;Over 60 trusts have been established to collectively form a $36.8 billion privately funded asbestos personal injury compensation system that operates parallel to, but wholly independent of, the civil tort system,&rdquo; Behrens said in his prepared testimony.<br /><br />Because these trusts operate independent of the court system, Behrens said the current system &ldquo;is fertile ground for inequity.&rdquo;<br /><br />As an example, Behrens pointed to Garlcok Sealing Technologies, a gasket manufacturer currently in bankruptcy who reported some inconsistences in the claims filed against it.<br /><br />&ldquo;Of the255 Garlock mesothelioma plaintiffs who filed claims against Pittsburgh Corning, only 19 had disclosed their exposure to Pittsburgh Corning asbestos to Garlock,&rdquo; he said, noting that both plaintiffs and trusts, many of which he claims are involved in governing these trusts, have &ldquo;resisted &nbsp;making this information available.&rdquo;<br /><br />Behrens said that more transparency is needed in order to prevent claimants from double-dipping and help &ldquo;asbestos trusts and solvent defendants alike to assess claims based on accurate and reliable exposure information.&rdquo;<br /><br />The transparency proposed in Kay&rsquo;s bill could also &ldquo;help ensure that solvent defendants are held responsible only for their fair share of the liability, whether through proper set-off credits post-verdict or by proving that the now bankrupt entity was the sole proximate cause of the harm,&rdquo; he said<br /><br />As president of the Tooling &amp; Manufacturing Association (TMA), McGuire testified this week in support of HB153.<br /><br />&ldquo;Myriad Illinois-based companies, including many small and medium sized manufacturers, are being hurt by the current lack of trust claims transparency,&rdquo; he said in a prepared statement. &ldquo;As a state with a strong manufacturing sector, Illinois feels the impact of abusive asbestos litigation more directly than many other states.&rdquo;<br /><br />Pointing to reports from the Government Accountability Office and RAND Institute, TMA contends that having a dual compensation system for asbestos plaintiffs &ldquo;promotes fraudulent and inconsistent claims.&rdquo;<br /><br />&ldquo;It is evident that asbestos claimants are presenting the trusts with one set of facts while telling solvent defendants something entirely different,&rdquo; the group claimed in a new release regarding the legislation.<br /><br />As an example, the group pointed to a case in Ohio, where &ldquo;a claimant told a trust he was exposed to its asbestos as a World War II shipyard worker. But in his tort suit he claimed he only passed though the shipyard and that his injuries were the result of exposure to asbestos-containing consumer products.&rdquo;<br /><br />TMA asserts similar situations have occurred in Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma and Virginia.<br /><br />When plaintiffs file their trust claims after their lawsuits have been resolved, the group claims that businesses are denied the &ldquo;opportunity to fully and fairly defend themselves&rdquo; and that solvent defendants &ldquo;end up paying more than their fair share of liability.&rdquo;<br /><br />It is unclear when, or if, HB153 will be called to a committee vote. As of Thursday, it remained assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. The language of Kay's bill can be found at ilga.gov."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://madisonrecord.com/stories/510575106-lawmakers-hear-testimony-on-kay-s-asbestos-double-dipping-bill>