Mass Tort Update- |
- Asbestos Update
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- Philadelphia, PA 215-567-3500
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- Red Bank, NJ 732-747-9003
Mass Tort Update Asbestos Update
Part 1: Introduction
Our legislatures today are besieged with bills drafted as part of a national agenda to take from injured consumers, including those affected by Asbestos, "the very essence of civil liberty [which] certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury." Marbury v. Madison.
This assault on the American consumer is aggravated by court sanctioned secrecy agreements that prevent public disclosure of critical product safety information uncovered in litigation involving Asbestos and others. Together these circumstances place at risk the continued viability of our civil justice system, as we know it and the protection it offers us as members of a constantly evolving industrial and technological society.
In recent Ford-Firestone tire litigation, it became clear that safety information, which might have saved many lives had it been made available to the public, was placed under seal with court approval.
Yet, in strikingly parallel litigation involving alleged defects concerning Goodyear Tires, the N.J. Supreme Court in Frankel v. Goodyear, refused to find that the public had a right of access to information impacting public health that was being deliberately kept under seal by agreement of the parties. Instead, the Court referred the issue to the N.J. Supreme Court Civil Practice Committee to consider a Rule change relating to this issue.
In considering this issue, the N.J. Civil Practice Committee, as well as courts faced with secrecy agreements impacting the public health and legislatures considering limiting consumer rights, should be aware of similar circumstances in our history where secret settlements in conjunction with a national agenda to eliminate the injured worker's right to a jury trial contributed significantly to America's worst industrial tragedy, namely, Asbestos.
Unfortunately, the stage for this tragedy consisted primarily of courtrooms, industrial facilities and offices in New Jersey.
With the hope that we as a society do not repeat the sins of the past and pay yet a higher price with the lives of our citizens now and in the future, the story of how and why more than a half million Americans so far have lost their lives due to Asbestos needs to be told from the perspective from which it has not been told before.
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