Abuses and scandals

The United States is notorious for being the Kingdom of collective litigation of all sorts. The litigation related to asbestos exposure is without doubt the greatest scandal in the annals of American judicial history. Billions of dollars were given to supposed victims of asbestos, (and indirectly the legal firms representing them), who were never made sick and who will probably never be sick.

The collusion of some American lawyers and radiologists allowed the extortion of colossal sums for damages from American businesses targeted by the litigation. The strategy was structured and systematic on a nearly industrial basis. As a result of this monumental swindle dozens of companies were bankrupted or forced into judicial reorganization.

Unsatisfied with the extraction of juicy fees from the pseudo-victims of asbestos, these "extraction  professionals" moved on to new markets like people exposed professionally to silica. Some of the so called victims of asbestos were transformed into victims of silica.

A mess of such a size is not possible without the complicity and /or the complacence of a large number of parties from the judicial field, all in a climate of presumption of guilt without sufficient proof.

The reform of the system of collective litigation in the United States is not for tomorrow, but many senators and American representatives have raised the necessity of  concrete actions to clean up this industry that is sick with its own opulence!

Notes : Articles recently published in the United Sates consider that a large majority of the claims relative to asbestos exposure are unfounded.
Consult these 3 references :

• Strassel, Kimberly A., «The Great Asbestos Scam», The Wall Street Journal, Page A 18, April 10, 2006.
• Parloff, Roger, «Diagnosing for Dollars», Fortune, Pages 96-110, June 13, 2005.
• «Beware the B-Readers», The Wall Street Journal, Page A16, January 23 , 2006.