Coalitions Support, Oppose Asbestos Legislation Efforts; Senate Passes Class Action Bill

WASHINGTON -- Groups backing and opposing the asbestos legislation efforts in recent weeks have written letters to the Senate Judiciary Committee indicating their alliances, while new testimony before the Committee suggests that a silica claim provision also may be included in the proposed bill.

On Feb. 2, New York law professor Lester Brickman suggested that the Committee include silica in the asbestos legislation proposal and indicated that a failure to do so would create 'the mass conversion of bogus asbestos claims into bogus silica claims by the same plaintiffs' lawyers, screeners, and B-readers [of X-rays] that have made asbestos litigation …