Asbestos Claims Rising
Monday, October 15th, 2001 LiabilityA leading think tank has found that the more than 500,000 asbestos injury plaintiffs with $21 billion in claims in the United States may be only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, it is possible that less than half of all potential asbestos claims have been presented to date, the RAND Institute for Civil Justice says. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based group’s findings were disclosed in a recent report, "Asbestos Litigation in the U.S.: A New Look at an Old Issue." RAND found that annual asbestos claims filings as a whole have been rising "sharply" since 1990, and acknowledged that "no one knows the total amount spent to date to resolve asbestos claims." Examining asbestos-related bankruptcies, the RAND report found the number has soared in the past 18 months. At least 41 asbestos defendant corporations have filed for bankruptcy, with eight of these filing since Jan. 1, 2000.
